Wedding Day Dead: A Murder on Maui Mystery (10 page)

Daphne stormed off. Both Peter and I watched her as she headed back to my car. I turned back to Peter.

“Is that right? Panos loaned you money before?”

Peter nodded.

“A hundred bucks, here and there. Certainly nothing that covered the cost of that boat.”

“Yeah, but you have to admit that was decent of him. How many other people gave you money?”

“Look, man, Panos could spare the money. He was some rich, trust fund baby. He had no idea how good he had it. He could have easily paid me what that boat was worth, and then we wouldn’t have had a problem.”

“Daphne’s gone. Now you can tell me what you saw.”

Peter hesitated again.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t repeat what you say.”

“I saw the blood on the dock. It led onto the boat. I should have just called nine one one. Maybe if it was any other boat, I would have done that, but I went onboard. The door to the cabin was open. It’s always locked at night, so I went inside. There were more blood tracks on the carpet in the main cabin. They led all the way to the steps. I went down into the bedroom and saw him there. He was lying on the bed on his back. There was blood everywhere, on
the carpet, all over the sheets. Everywhere. I threw up, man. I’m not ashamed to admit it. After that I ran out and called the cops. Look, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to Panos. I certainly didn’t want him dead. But I didn’t see anything that night that could help you find the killer. I don’t have the slightest idea who did it.”

“You must know someone who didn’t like him.”

Peter laughed.

“How much time do you have? As many people hated Panos as loved him. He was a cool guy to be around at first, but after a while, you saw him for how he really was. The guy didn’t care about anyone other than himself, and he wouldn’t think twice about screwing you over. He did it to me. I’m sure he did it to countless others.”

I tried to think of other questions but didn’t really have anything.

“I appreciate your time,” I said.

“I saw you out on his boat the other day. You were with Alana and two other people.”

He waited for a reaction from me. He didn’t get one.

“How long did you know him?” Peter asked.

“Not long,” I said.

“Be glad. He was bad news, man. He would have done you wrong too.”

What is that phrase of not speaking ill of the dead? I guessed Peter had never heard it. He didn’t say goodbye, and I didn’t either. He just turned from me and walked back toward the marina office. I looked up to the parking lot and saw Daphne leaning against my car. She wasn’t facing me, so she didn’t see me looking at her.

I walked back down the dock to Panos’ boat. The blood had been washed off the dock. I looked past the crime scene tape on the boat and saw the traces of blood that stood out against the white surface of the boat deck. It was easy to spot in the daylight, but I had no idea how hard it would be to see at night, even with a dock light nearby. I wasn’t sure I believed Peter when he said he didn’t have anything to do with the murder. I’m sure his anger would have grown every time he washed and cleaned that boat for the guy who had practically stolen it from him. It might have been too much to take once Panos returned to the island. I wondered if maybe Panos had said something to Peter the day he took us sailing. Peter said he saw us at the marina, so he established
himself and Panos at the same place and at the same time. Panos took multiple shots at me. It wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to assume he took a shot at Peter that day too. But did Peter respond by slitting Panos’ throat? How did he even know Panos was on the boat that night to begin with? Why was Panos even there?

I didn’t understand why Panos would leave the rehearsal party at his restaurant to spend the night on his boat when he had a beautiful house nearby. I considered for a moment that the murder of Panos took place somewhere else, and then his body was transported to the boat cabin, but I quickly dismissed that theory. Panos was a big guy. It would be too much effort to drag his body down to the dock. It would also be far too risky. For some reason, Panos decided to come to the boat himself, and the killer either knew he was coming or followed him there.

I walked back to my car and found Daphne still leaning against it.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Fine. I just figured he might be more open if I wasn’t there.”

“That’s very observant of you.”

“Not really. It was pretty obvious he was holding back. Did you learn anything?”

“The main thing is I’m just not sure he would have been able to spot those blood stains on the dock or the boat at night. That dock light is several feet from the boat. I’m not sure it would have cast enough light to tell it was blood versus an ordinary shadow.”

“So you think he’s lying?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Where to next?” she asked.

“The restaurant. Let’s hit up Wes.”

We climbed in the car and drove away.

IX

Wes and The View

I
t took us less than five minutes to get to the restaurant, and the parking lot was mostly empty. I guessed the only cars there belonged to the employees. I parked close to the front entrance, and we went inside.

We saw Shae, the hostess, along with a few of the waiters, placing glasses and silverware on the tables. Shae looked at us when she heard the door open. Even from a distance, I could recognize the look of sorrow on her face. Shae put one of the glasses down and hurried over to Daphne.

“I’m so sorry, Daphne.”

Shae hugged her. I wasn’t sure Daphne wanted one based on her reaction. She seemed reluctant to hug Shae back. She eventually did, but I’m not sure Shae noticed the initial hesitation on Daphne’s part.

“I’m so sorry,” Shae repeated.

“Thank you,” Daphne said.

Shae turned to me.

“It’s nice to see you again,” I said. “I’m not sure we were ever formally introduced the other night. I’m Poe.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said while wiping a few tears out of her eyes.

We didn’t shake hands.

“We were wondering if Wes was here,” Daphne said.

“He’s in his office.”

“Do you mind if we walk back there?” I asked.

“Of course not.”

Shae turned to Daphne.

“Please let me know if there’s anything I can do,” she said.

“Thank you,” Daphne said.

Daphne and I walked to the back of the restaurant. The office door was open, and we saw Wes sitting behind a desk. He had a stack of receipts in front of him. I felt weird being back here. The last time I stood in this doorway, I saw Alana kissing Panos.

Wes looked up from his receipts. His expression was neutral.

“Hello, Wes,” Daphne said. “May we come in?”

Wes stood, and, to his credit, walked around the desk to greet Daphne with a hug.

“I’m very sorry about Panos,” he said.

“Thank you.”

I knew everyone meant well, but I wondered how many times Daphne had heard that phrase in the last week. I’m sure she was getting tired of it.

“We were hoping we could ask you a few questions about the night of the rehearsal party,” Daphne said.

“Sure,” Wes said. He looked somewhat confused.

He walked back around his desk and sat down. We sat in two chairs in front of the desk.

“Do you know what time Panos left the party?” I asked.

“No idea. I closed up around four in the morning. I asked Panos to see me before he left, but he ducked out before talking to me.”

“What were you going to talk about?” I asked.

“The restaurant operations.”

“Was the rehearsal party the best time for that discussion?” I asked.

“Who are you again?” Wes asked.

“My name’s Poe. I’m a friend of Daphne’s.”

“The answer to your question is ‘no.’ The party was not the best time to talk about the restaurant’s problems, but Panos had been ignoring me for months. I called and e-mailed him dozens of times, only to be completely ignored. I thought he would want to know we were on the verge of bankruptcy. Apparently, he couldn’t have cared less.”

I couldn’t blame Wes for being mad at Panos or even pissed off at me for sticking my nose into his money problems. But that was the point of these little interrogations. Get people angry at you and expose their true feelings.

“You mentioned the other night that you were having business issues. How did you think Panos could help?”

“By giving a damn. I wanted him to help me get Jim back.”

“Who’s Jim again?” I asked.

“My ex-chef. The guy Panos drove away.”

“You couldn’t get him back on your own?”

“I tried. God knows, I tried. But Jim wouldn’t come back without a personal apology from Panos. Who knows if he would have come back even then?”

“You said Panos drove him away. Why?”

“Nobody likes to be micromanaged, especially a chef. Panos argued with Jim about everything - the menu, the quality of the food, the service, everything. But Jim is the best chef on the island. He didn’t need to put up with Panos, so he left.”

“How did you and Panos end up in business together?” I asked.

“I owned a small place in Paia that Panos came to a few times. He heard me talking to a customer about wanting to open a bigger restaurant here in Lahaina. I just wasn’t getting the traction I needed in Paia. Panos approached me about being his partner. He said he would put up the money, and I would run the business. It sounded like a dream deal.”

“But it wasn’t,” I guessed.

Wes shook his head.

“It was a nightmare from the start. We clashed constantly. Panos had to get his way. He felt the need to remind me a hundred times a day that he was the one with the cash. Like I needed to be reminded of that. Of course, my twenty-five years of experience in the restaurant business accounted for nothing. But I was desperate to get to this area, so I agreed to everything.”

“What were some of the things you argued about?” I asked.

“The food, the prices, you name it. I wanted to go middle-of-the-road, appeal to the broadest group of tourists, but Panos wanted to go high end.”

“So your business didn’t do well from the very beginning?” I asked.

“No, things did go well. We were making good money. We had great reviews. It proved to Panos that he had been right on every call, and I was wrong about everything. He threw it in my face every day. He gave no credit to Jim or me. I was in charge of the restaurant operations, the hiring and training of the waiters and bartenders, the ordering of food and supplies, but if you
asked Panos, he did everything, including slaving over the stove and carrying the food out to the tables.”

“He must have done something,” Daphne suggested, trying to salvage something of her brother’s reputation.

“Yeah, he brought in the crowds. I’ll give him that. He was a magnet. You know that. People loved Panos. When he fired Jim and left for California, I couldn’t recover.”

“I don’t believe Panos would completely ignore you. I know he was away, but Panos never wanted this place to fail. He had too much invested in it,” Daphne said. “He was proud of this place.”

“Would you like me to show you the e-mails? All of them went unreturned. Then there’s this building. Panos bought it and rented it back to the restaurant. The rent’s astronomical. Once we started having troubles, I asked him to lower the rent, but he wouldn’t do it.”

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe try to sell the business.”

“You can’t sell without my family’ permission,” Daphne said.

“Is that right? I guess Panos never showed you the operating agreement.”

Wes opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a document. He shoved it across the desk toward Daphne, but she didn’t pick it up.

“I now own one hundred percent of this business,” Wes said.

I picked up the operating agreement and began to flip through it.

“That’s impossible. Panos would have left his shares to his family.”

“The operating agreement says that in the event of a general partner dying, the shares revert back to the other partner. Panos’ shares went to me.”

“That’s crazy. He never would have agreed to that.”

“Agreed to it? He insisted on it. I wanted to leave my shares to my wife, but Panos said he didn’t want to get stuck in business with someone he might not be able to work with. That was our biggest point of contention, but I gave in, like I always did. Now it’s come back to bite him in the ass.”

I found the section of the agreement that detailed what happened if one of the owners should die. Wes was right. All of the shares went to the surviving member. I put the document back on his desk.

“I’m afraid he’s right, Daphne. Wes now owns all of the restaurant.”

“This was all your plan,” Daphne said.

“My plan? How was this my plan?”

Wes suddenly realized why we were there.

“You think I had something to do with Panos’ death, don’t you?”

I said nothing.

“Well, I didn’t. What did I have to gain? I now own one hundred percent of a bankrupt business. I’ll be lucky to get pennies on the dollar for this place.”

Daphne stood up.

“I still expect the rent on time,” she said.

She turned and left before Wes could respond.

“I didn’t want him to die. I just wanted him to help me,” he said.

I believed Wes, at least I thought he sounded sincere. But I’d been fooled before.

“How did you hear about Panos’ death?” I asked.

“The same as everyone else, I guess, on the news. Panos was well known around town.”

“It must have been somewhat of a relief for you, to know you could now make all of the decisions by yourself.”

“It was. And I feel terrible admitting that to you. He just didn’t give a damn about anything or anyone other than himself.”

“Yet people were still attracted to him,” I said.

“I fell under his spell in the beginning too. The guy had so much confidence. You just got the impression he could do anything.”

“Have you considered just closing the doors and cutting your losses?”

“I can’t. My wife and I sunk every penny we have into this place. We’ll be ruined if it doesn’t work out.”