Wedding Day Dead: A Murder on Maui Mystery (12 page)

I decided to change the conversation.

“Have you seen Alana today?” I asked Michelle.

She shook her head.

“She wasn’t there when I came over. I think she leaves for work pretty early. She told Hani that she’s been clashing with the detective on the case. She asked to see the autopsy report, and he refused.”

“Can he do that?” I asked.

“She said he can’t, but I got the impression he’s just being a jerk to her. She said she’d go around him to get the report.”

I heard barking and turned around to see Maui the dog standing at the sliding glass door. He wagged his tail when he saw me look at him.

“You need to take that beast of yours for a walk. He’s been stuck inside all day,” Foxx said.

“Why didn’t you let him out?” I asked.

Foxx held up his hands.

“Not my responsibility, buddy.”

“I told him, Poe. I think Maui’s adorable.”

“He’d be tolerable if he’d just stop trying to bite me. One minute he’s sleeping on my legs; the next he’s trying to have me for lunch.”

Michelle laughed.

“He’s just suspicious of your character,” she said.

“How can anyone not love me?” Foxx asked.

“You guys enjoy yourself,” I said.

I turned and walked toward Maui the dog. I would take him on a quick walk, and then I would go for a run. I needed the physical exertion after my conversation with Makani and Kai. Talking to them, especially Kai, was like drinking a gallon of poison. I felt like I needed to sweat the experience out.

XI

The Threat

W
hile I ran, I thought about everything I’d learned since the start of my investigation.

Peter Bell resented Panos because Panos bought his boat at a bargain price, and then wouldn’t sell it back to him as originally agreed upon. I found it unlikely Peter would kill Panos over a boat, but Peter had discovered the body, and he did seem to possess superhuman eyesight by seeing the blood stains on a dark dock at night. Did he only see them because he knew they were there? But again, would you kill a person over a sailboat? People certainly killed for less. I just didn’t know if Peter Bell was one of those people.

Wes was a far more likely suspect. He hated Panos for not treating him like an equal business partner, and he felt ignored once Panos moved to Los Angeles. Wes had everything invested in that restaurant. If it went down, Wes was going with it, along with his wife. It also seemed unlikely that anything would change as long as Panos continued to own half of the restaurant and blocked everything Wes tried to do. But Wes did make a great point when he said owning 100 percent of a failing business was still not worth much. He didn’t really gain anything by getting rid of Panos.

I was tempted to scratch the timid Makani off my list, but my list was so small already, I couldn’t afford to lose a potential suspect. Makani was deeply embarrassed by Panos at the party, and he was jealous over Panos’ relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Hani. So that potentially led to revenge, a proven reason for murder.

His brother, Kai, though, was my number one suspect so far. I had to admit my personal feelings could and probably did influence my opinion on the matter. Kai threatened me, and he was an asshole. You’d be upset too.

I finished my run and walked into the house. Foxx was lying on the sofa, watching television.

“Where’s Maui the dog?” I asked.

“Outside with Alana,” he said, not even turning to me.

“Alana’s here?” I asked.

“Didn’t I just say that?”

He flipped the television to one of those Discovery Channel shows that deal with wives killing husbands or husbands killing wives. Something like that.

“She’s been here for almost an hour,” he continued.

I walked outside and found Alana tossing Maui a tennis ball in the backyard. The green ball was almost too big for him, and he struggled to pick it up with his mouth. When he saw me, Maui abandoned the ball and ran to me. I bent down and scratched him on his back.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I told Alana.

I wondered what was so important that she’d wait here for so long.

“It’s no problem. I was glad to get out of the office.”

“How’s Hani?” I asked.

“Somewhat better. She finally climbed out of bed this morning.”

“So she’s still staying with you?”

“For the time being. I suspect she’ll be going home soon. Her tenet moved out of her house here on the island a month ago, so she’ll probably be staying on Maui for a while. She said she has no real desire to go back to L.A.”

“I’m sure you’ve been a big help to her,” I said.

“I wish I could do more, but I’ve been trying to be at work as much as possible to stay in the loop. Michelle has mostly been the one staying with her.”

“How is the investigation going? Adcock actually interviewed me, if you can believe it,” I said.

“I had a discussion with Detective Adcock regarding you right before I came over,” she said.

“You have to admit that him thinking of me as a potential suspect is a giant waste of time.”

“That’s not what he came to me about,” she said. “He got a call from Kai, who told him you came by his shop today. He said you asked him all sorts of questions about Panos. Did you do that?”

“Yes,” I said, not willing at that second to elaborate.

“What are you up to, Poe?”

I said nothing while I tried to figure out how to get out of explaining my actions to Alana. I refused to lie to her, but I knew she would explode if she knew the true reason I interviewed Kai. I figured when I accepted the job that she’d find out sooner rather than later. I just didn’t expect it to be this soon.

“What are you up to?” she repeated.

My brain completely failed me, as it often does, and I had no great excuse other than the truth.

“Panos’ mother asked me to look into it,” I admitted.

“When did you meet Panos’ mother?”

“She flew to the island to bring back Panos’ body. She asked me to go see her, so I did.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Something about not having a lot of faith in Adcock.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re conducting your own investigation.”

I said nothing.

“You are, aren’t you?” Alana asked.

“All right. She hired me to find the killer. Well, technically, she didn’t hire me since I’m working for free.”

“This is a horrible idea.”

“Trying to find the killer is bad?”

“No, clashing with Adcock is bad. He’s threatening to arrest you for interfering in a murder investigation,” she said.

“Can he do that?”

“Yes he can, and he will.”

“You didn’t do that to me,” I said.

“They’re two entirely different situations.”

“So you think Adcock can figure this out on his own?” I asked.

“Adcock is a vindictive SOB. He wouldn’t hesitate to throw you in jail even if the charges didn’t stick. He’d keep you in there as long as he possibly could.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“Don’t expect me to bail you out. I’ve warned you.”

“Fine,” I said.

“Fine,” she repeated.

We both stood in silence a few moments. Alana picked up the tennis ball and threw it for Maui the dog. He watched the ball roll toward the pool and decided he didn’t want to chase it. Instead, he yawned and laid down on the ground.

“I guess I should be getting back to Hani,” she said.

“Please give her my best,” I said.

“I will.”

Alana walked toward the back gate.

“Where are things with us?” I asked.

She stopped and turned around to face me.

“I don’t know. Where are things?” she asked back.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I said. “That’s why I asked the question.”

“I apologized the other day. You didn’t really say whether you could forgive me or not.”

“Forgiving is one thing. Forgetting is something different. I was in Wes’ office yesterday. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I saw in there.”

“That’s the thing, isn’t it? I can’t spend the rest of our relationship having you throw that at me. It was a stupid mistake, and it meant nothing.”

“I’m not throwing it at you, Alana. I’m telling you how I felt at that moment.”

Alana said nothing.

“You still loved him, didn’t you?” I asked.

“No.”

She answered so quickly that I didn’t know if she was lying or just knew the answer.

“Then why did you kiss him?”

“I don’t know. It would never have gone any further than that. He kissed me. I should have immediately pushed him away, but I didn’t.”

“People say hate isn’t the opposite of love. It’s indifference. I knew something was up when I saw how emotional you were with his return to Maui. You still had feelings for him. I knew it. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”

“He humiliated me, Poe. Have you ever had anyone leave you for your sibling? Do you know how quickly word got around? I was the laughing stock of the island.”

“No one was laughing at you,” I said.

“How do you know? You weren’t even here then.”

“Because people respect you, and Panos’ actions aren’t your fault. If they were laughing at anyone, it was him or Hani, but it wasn’t you.”

“The thing is that I was more mad at myself than I was at him. I knew from the start something like that was going to happen.”

“Then why be with him if you didn’t trust him?”

“Because it was exciting, at least at first. He lived an exciting life, and I lived a very safe life. I was always the good girl, always the one who did the right thing, did what everybody thought I should do. I was Ms. Predictable. Panos came along and showed interest in me. I was flattered. I knew it would never last, but even then, I didn’t expect him to run off with Hani. I was furious with myself for not seeing that betrayal coming.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Nobody would expect that.”

“I should have been smarter. It was typical Hani. If I had something, she had to make it hers,” she said.

“How soon did you meet me after that?” I asked.

“Maybe six months. Maybe a little longer.”

It suddenly made sense. During our first dinner date, I sensed Alana holding back, like there was a hidden pain deep inside her. Don’t get me wrong. No one lays everything out on the table during the first date. I didn’t expect Alana to do that. I knew I didn’t even know everything there was to know about her now, and I really didn’t want to know. People are deep mysteries. Part of the adventure is solving that mystery slowly over a long period of time, but there was a sorrow that night just below her surface. A hesitation. A fear. Now I knew what is was. Panos had come between us even then. I wondered if we’d ever be able to get past him even though he was now gone.

“We moved too fast, Poe.”

“How did we move too fast?” I asked.

“We slept together on the first date,” she reminded me, as if I actually needed to be reminded.

“You didn’t want that? I thought you enjoyed it,” I said, suddenly feeling very defensive, like she was accusing me of doing something she didn’t want to do. I knew I had been aggressive that night, but I thought I was also respectful. I hated now thinking I had talked her into doing something she wasn’t ready for. Suddenly I felt like I was part of a sexual harassment training video.

“We should have taken our time,” she said.

“That wasn’t some one-nighter. It turned into a relationship.”

“Maybe I just wasn’t ready.”

“Ready for the sex or ready for the relationship?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Both, maybe.”

I didn’t know exactly what she was trying to get at. My gut told me this was officially the end, and she was trying to figure out a way to break it to me gently. This sort of felt like a “this is not you it’s me” kind of talk.

“Sometimes I just don’t trust happiness,” she said.

“I get it. I really do. But that doesn’t mean you should never allow yourself to be happy. You have to let your guard down sometime. You can’t go through life worrying about something going wrong at any moment.”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”

Alana hesitated a moment.

“Please do me a favor and stay out of this investigation,” she continued. “I do care about you. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Alana turned and left. I went back into the house. Maui the dog followed me. Foxx was still on the sofa watching married couples killing each other on television. I hoped this wasn’t the universe’s way of telling me to get the point.

“You guys work everything out?” Foxx asked. He still didn’t take his eyes off the television.

“Not quite,” I said.

He didn’t respond.

“How can you watch this crap?” I asked.

Foxx put the remote down and turned to me.

“What’s the holdup with you two? I was convinced you’d put this behind you by now.”

I brought Foxx up to speed on everything that had just happened outside.

“I don’t understand why she needs more time. Time for what?” I asked.

“I think that’s the second question you should be asking yourself,” Foxx said.

“What’s the first?”

“Whether or not you forgive her for kissing Panos.”

I said nothing.

“Do you forgive her?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It just happened a week ago. How do you forgive someone just like that?” I asked.

“You don’t, buddy, but you have to decide whether or not you’re going to try. This isn’t about her fear of being happy or not happy, and it’s damn sure not about Panos. It’s about you. She’s waiting for you to make a decision. Are you going to cut her loose, or are you going to forgive her?”

“It’s not that simple. I told you what she said. She said she’s not even sure she’s ready to be in a relationship.”

Foxx laughed.

“Ready? I’ve got news for her. She’s already in a relationship. No, man, she’s waiting to hear from you. She’s just trying to protect herself in case you reject her. She’s just tricking herself now into thinking she might not even want a relationship. It’s self-protection mode. We all do it. She may not even realize she’s doing it, but she is.”

“You sound like a psychiatrist,” I said.