4 Kaua'i Me a River (27 page)

“I guess I underestimated you.”

“Damn straight you did. That
girl’s bad news, Pali. She may be able to take that kid away from Farrah, but
I’ve put her name up on emergency services radar. One complaint, one
nine-one-one call, one
hang-nail
on any of those kids and I’ll have
child services on her ass like white on rice.”

That was the Hatch I knew and
loved.

Making up may be the only upside
to a having a fight. But in the right hands, it’s the best upside there is.

EPILOGUE

The Kaua'i Police Department got
to work unraveling Arthur Chesterton’s cover-up of the 1981 murder of Marta
Warner Wilkerson and Robert Allen Wilkerson. As it turned out, the mayor got
his wish to have his time run out before he could be taken to task. He died of
a lung infection before charges were filed and before they could strip him of
his pension.  

The medical examiner ran a secondary
tox screen on samples taken from Peggy Chesterton’s body. He determined that
although the anti-freeze, or ethylene glycol, markers had vastly deteriorated
due to refrigeration, he could reasonably state she most probably had been
poisoned prior to her fatal accident.

Sunny Wilkerson was indicted on
one count of first-degree murder and a second count of attempted murder.
Valentine declined to represent her, citing conflict of interest. If Sunny is
found guilty she won’t be allowed to collect her share of Phil Wilkerson’s
inheritance until she’s served her time. And even then, probably Peggy’s two
kids will sue her in civil court for every last dime.

I’m at peace with my decision on
what to do with Phil’s money. I intend to have a double gravestone made for my
mom and Robert and have it placed in the Maui cemetery where Auntie Mana is
buried. I’m going to have it engraved,
Beloved Parents of Pali and Jeff
.
I figure if I can blow off the stupid name my father gave me, I can also blow
off acknowledging our biological relationship.

I’m going to take some of the
money and pay off my mortgage and buy myself a new car. Why not? Phil never
gave me squat, so the SOB can make up for it now.

I’m going to put the bulk of the
money in a trust for Phil’s other kids. I’ve talked with most of them, and, as
much as it pains me to admit it, I agree with Phil on one thing: they’re spoiled
rotten. How does the law describe it?
Fruit of the poison tree
? Yeah,
that’s them.

Finally, telling my brother Jeff
about how our mother died was the hardest conversation I’ve ever had. I hated
telling him on the phone, but I had weddings coming up and I’d blown my airfare
budget going back and forth to Kaua'i. His silence made the revelation even
harder since I wanted to hug him but twenty-four hundred miles of ocean stood between
us.

 “I want to come over when you install
the gravestone,” he said.

“I’d love that.”

“And then let’s spend a little
time together.”

“Great. I’ll make up the guest
room.”

“No, I’ve slept on that nasty
sofa-bed of yours,” he said. “I think we should get away.”

“Get away? To where?”

“I think we should spend a few
days in the city.”

“San Francisco?”

“No. Who wants to hang out in
the fog and rain?” he said. “I’m talking Honolulu.”

And so Honolulu it will be.

Acknowledgements

Every book begins as a tiny kernel
of an idea and grows into a few hundred pages of love, sweat and tears. This
book turned out to be a lot of all three, especially sweat, but I thank
everyone for hanging in there with me.

My first shout out goes to Roger
and Diana Paul. They’re big Kaua'i enthusiasts and generous to a fault. Thanks
again for everything.

I also want to thank Sam and Ann
Densler who trooped along without complaint as I researched every tourist trap
and hidey hole on the island. I hope you enjoyed lunch at the Kong Lung Historic
Market Center in as much as I did.

Mahalo to Preston Myers of Safari
Helicopter on Kaua'i for a never-to-be-forgotten look at the entire island, but
especially the bird’s eye view of the Pali Coast.

I never tire of thanking my
friends, early readers and supporters, including (but thankfully not limited
to) Sue Cook, Wendy Lester, Linda Mitchell, KC Spiker, and my dear,
long-suffering husband, Tom Haberer.

And finally, a big mahalo to my fellow
writers at misterio press (no caps, but they’re all capital writers) Shannon
Esposito, Kassandra Lamb, Kirsten Weiss, Catie Rhodes, Stacy Green, and Kathy
Owen.  Please check out our website at
http://www.misteriopress.com
and
see the the fruits of their labors.

Most of all, a big
couldn’t-do-it-without-you thank you to YOU, my readers. Please visit my
Facebook page “JoAnn Bassett’s Author Page” or my website,
http://www.joannbassett.com
and see what’s new in the “Islands of Aloha Mystery Series.”

Mahalo!

The
“Islands of Aloha Mystery Series”

Maui
Widow Waltz

Livin’
Lahaina Loca

Lana’i
of the Tiger

Kaua'i
Me a River

O’ahu
Lonesome Tonight (coming soon!)