Banana Split (24 page)

Before leaving, she straightened her room and put Charlie’s list on top of the pile of papers she’d collected so far. She smiled, liking the list being in its rightful place—on top because it was the most important . . . even though she hadn’t actually answered anything yet.

Mount Wai’ale’ale was considered the rainiest place in the world, and, as usual, the sidewalk was wet with the remnants of the nightly rain. The moisture would be gone within the hour, Sadie guessed, evaporating back into the sky and adding to the humidity. She loved how the world here seemed to be washed clean every night to start bright and shiny each morning. She knew it was another aspect of Kaua’i she would miss once she returned home.

The continental breakfast in the office of the motel consisted of prepackaged Danishes, orange juice, and bananas. There was a different girl behind the front desk this morning, dark skinned and dark haired, but wearing the same kind of green-and-white aloha shirt that Ashley had worn the night before. Sadie held her breath until she reached the counter and read “Kiki” on the girl’s name tag. Hopefully she knew Noelani better than Ashley had.

A couple was looking through a display of brochures, so Sadie took her time with breakfast and didn’t approach Kiki until the couple had left. Once alone, Sadie wanted to dive right in with her questions, but she took her time and chatted with Kiki about the weather and fun things to do in the area before working her way into a conversation about Noelani.

Kiki immediately looked at the desk, suddenly busy with straightening stacks of papers.

“Were you friends with her?” Sadie pushed.

Kiki nodded, looking toward the front doors as though hoping someone would come in and interrupt them.

“What can you tell me about her?” Sadie asked. “I’m just trying to get a better picture of who she was.”

Kiki stopped going through the files, but didn’t face Sadie. “I really can’t talk about her.”

A man and his son came in, grabbed breakfast, and left after asking Kiki about the nearest Redbox. As soon as they were gone, Sadie picked up right where she’d left off; Kiki was back at the desk.

“Why can’t you talk about it? Is it upsetting?”

Kiki shook her head, then stopped and turned to face Sadie. For the first time, Sadie noticed Kiki was pregnant—five or six months, Sadie would guess. She had a small frame so it was an obvious baby bump. “Well, yes, it is sad, but . . . well . . .”

Sadie offered up her softest, most trustworthy smile. “Yes?”

Kiki glanced at the door behind Sadie then said, “The owner asked those of us who knew Noelani not to talk to anyone about her. It’s bad for morale.”

“I certainly won’t tell him anything you tell me.”

“I’m sorry,” Kiki said, putting her hands on her belly. “I really need this job.”

Sadie’s arguments fizzled as her protective side took over. She came up with another idea. “What’s the owner’s name?”

“Jim,” Kiki said, pointing to a plaque on the wall that honored a James Bartley for outstanding service back in 1999. A quick glance at the office with the curling wallpaper by the door, faded teal curtains beside the window, and the pressed wood furniture made Sadie think 1999 might have been the last good year the motel had had.

“Maybe I’ll talk to him.” She hadn’t meant it to sound like a threat, but the way Kiki’s eyes went wide she realized it could sound like one. “I certainly won’t say anything about having talked to you. I’ll just pretend to have gone to him in the first place. What time does he come in?”

For a few seconds, Kiki seemed to go back and forth on what to do, but finally she told Sadie that Jim was at the expedition office—a separate building next to the motel where he kept the boat he used for tourist groups. He was taking a group out at nine thirty and would be getting ready for the outing right now.

“Thank you,” Sadie said. “I would still like to talk to you about Noelani. Could I talk to you when you finish your shift?”

“Sure,” Kiki said, but her voice was hollow. “I’m not off until two, and then I have class at three thirty at the community college. I’ll have to figure out a good time.”

Sadie gave Kiki her cell number, which Kiki put into her phone before stashing it under the desk. “Call me with a time and place,” Sadie said. “I really appreciate it.”

The garage was next to the motel on the east side, set back from the road, but still easily found. A sign above the door read Bartley Expeditions. Jim Bartley was apparently an entrepreneur within numerous vertical industries of the tourist trade.

Just before letting herself in, Sadie’s phone signaled that she’d received a text message.

Kaua’i flight lands at 10:13. Can’t wait to see you!

Sadie’s stomach flipped with suppressed nerves, and she leaned her back against the metal pre-fab building as she took a deep breath. Gayle’s arrival was getting closer every minute, and she took a moment to reply.

See you soon!

Seconds later, she let herself into the small waiting area. A chest-level counter created a barrier between where she stood and an orange metal door she presumed led to the shop taking up most of the building. The waiting room was utilitarian, with posters on the wall featuring the underwater reefs surrounding Kaua’i as well as the Na Pali cliffs on the north side. The pictures triggered her anxiety, so she ignored them and approached the counter to tap the bell sitting there. “Hello?”

The shop door opened and a man came through. He was tall, with brown outgrown hair, light brown skin, a slight belly pressing against the blue cotton of his sleeveless shirt, and blue eyes. His eyebrows were thick, as were his arms. “Can I help you?” His tone was brusque and his expression intense.

“Um, yes,” Sadie said. “I wanted to talk to Jim Bartley.”

“I’m Jim. What do you need?”

“I’m trying to learn more about Noelani Pouhu,” Sadie said, already feeling him dismissing her. “I understand she worked for you.”

His hard expression turned even harder. “I’m busy,” he said, then turned and disappeared through the shop door.

Sadie waited, hoping he’d realize how rude he’d been and come back. He didn’t. After a few seconds, she took a breath and headed for the door herself. People could be so difficult sometimes.

She let herself into the shop and looked around. There was a wall full of accessories—life jackets, paddles, fishing gear, nets, and a few kayaks. Another wall had a long counter built into it, covered with tools and other odds and ends. In the center of the garage was a fishing boat—not too different than the ones some of her neighbors owned for weekend water skiing trips on North Sterling Reservoir. Jim’s boat was off-white due to age, with an open bow and a covered helm. A thick orange stripe wrapped around the entire vessel. She could see Jim Bartley’s shoulder at the back of the boat where he seemed to be working on the motor.

“I just have a few questions,” she said as she moved toward him. “You can keep working.”

He glanced up at her, still irritated, then went back to whatever he was doing.

“You with the police?” Jim asked, twisting something a little tighter.

“No,” Sadie said. “Just myself.”

“So what’s Noelani to a haole like you?”

She chose to assume he wasn’t using the term in a derogatory manner, though that was giving him an awful lot of credit. “I found her body,” Sadie said, using the excuse automatically since it had proved itself effective in other discussions. “In the ocean last week. It’s been a little haunting, and I’m hoping to find some closure by learning more about her.”

He glanced up at her again, an annoyed expression in his eyes, before going back to his engine. When he didn’t say anything else, she chose to assume he was okay with her reason for being here. At least, he hadn’t told her to leave yet.

Sadie cleared her throat, wishing she wasn’t so nervous. “So, did you know her?”

“I was her boss. Of course I knew her.”

“And she lived at the motel, right?”

“Yes.” He moved to the counter and rummaged in a toolbox for something.

Sadie waited until he came back and the subsequent metal on metal sounds had stopped before she continued.

“You knew about her history? The drug abuse?”

“Yes.”

“Did you think she was using again? I mean, toward the end?”

“Yes,” he said, standing up and pushing his long hair off his face. If not for his sour expression, and overgrown eyebrows in need of a good tweezing, he’d have been handsome.

“What made you think she was using?”

“She was late for work that last week, not very talkative, agitated.” He shrugged and threw the wrench he’d been holding into the toolbox. Sadie jumped when it hit the other tools. “And then the cops found drugs when they searched her stuff. Hard to explain that away.”

“I heard about that,” Sadie said, admitting it was a pretty good indication of what everyone assumed, that Noelani was using again. “Who found it?”

“I don’t know,” he said, all but rolling his eyes in contempt. “The cops.”

“I understand it was more than a week after she disappeared before she was found. Did you keep all her things in her room until the police contacted you?”

“No,” he said, but he seemed a little defensive. “Once she missed her Sunday shift I had her things packed up and put in storage. I assumed she’d hit me up for her last paycheck at some point. When the police showed up instead, I gave her stuff to them. When they found drugs, they did a more thorough search of the room she’d stayed in, but they didn’t find anything else.”

There was so much casualness about marijuana on the island, Sadie wondered why it was such a big deal for Noelani to have it. “Do you know why she was having a hard time the last little while?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jim said quickly. “She should have kept her personal problems to herself.”

“What personal problems?”

He gave her a hard look. “All of them.”

He started throwing life jackets into the boat, but he still hadn’t told her to leave so she didn’t. She’d have to get a sense of what was upsetting Noelani from other people; she wasn’t going to get it from this guy. “When did you last see her?” she asked.

“A week and a half before she washed up. That Saturday night,” he said. “She was scheduled to work until six the next morning. I checked in just after shift change—at ten—and she said everything was fine.”

“Did you know she called someone to work for her?”

“No, and I’d have fired her for it if she’d come back. All scheduling goes through me, and she knew it.”

Harsh, seeing as how she was dead. “You said she was late for work that week.”

“She said her phone died, so her alarm hadn’t woken her up.” He seemed to scoff at the idea—like he’d never overslept in his life.

“Had she missed other shifts?”

“No, but I’d already had to switch the schedule when she got visitation with her kid that day.”

“That day? That Saturday she disappeared?” Had Noelani seen Charlie
that
day? No one had told her that. Sadie hurried to move on, though, while he was in the mood to answer questions.

“Did the employee who covered for her know why Noelani needed to leave?”

“She didn’t give Kiki a reason.”

Ah, so it was Kiki who had covered the shift. Hadn’t the police said that Noelani had borrowed a coworker’s car? Kiki’s car? That made Kiki even more interesting.

“Did Kiki get written up for covering without your permission?”

He looked up at her and nodded. “Yeah, she did. One more and she’s outta here too.”

Sadie nodded, wishing she didn’t
have
to talk to Kiki, but she did. “I understand Noelani was part of Pastor Darryl’s congregation at Fellowship of Kaua’i Christian.”

He grunted and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you mean his harem?”

Sadie felt an inner jolt at the word.

Jim must have liked her reaction because when he went back to work on the engine, he was oozing arrogance. “Have you met the sheik, then?”

“I’ve met Pastor Darryl,” Sadie said. It was all she could do not to lecture Jim on the importance of using kind words for people. Then again, she was curious as to why he’d reached such a dramatic conclusion—a conclusion that wasn’t
completely
incongruent to Sadie’s concerns about Pastor Darryl. “He seems like a nice enough man.”

“Oh, he’s
real
nice,” Jim said. “Especially to the ladies. When did you meet him? Was he
fellowshipping
?”

“I met him at a social last night,” Sadie said, cautious. This man’s hardness made her uncomfortable.

“Ah, his weekly mix-and-mingle. Does it every Thursday night. So, tell me, how many men did you see at that party?”