Murder at Dolphin Bay (Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Book 1) (7 page)

“Hey, squirt.” Justin pulled me in for a bear-size hug when I sat down next to him. “You’re braver than I give you credit for if you’re willing to show your face around here today.”

“Brave? Why?”

“I heard you’ve been messing around in Jason’s case. He isn’t happy about it.”

“Messing around? What do you mean, messing around?”

Justin tugged on one of my braids the way he had when we were kids. “Someone found your phone and turned it in to Jason when they realized the significance of the photos you took on it. Lame move.”

“Damn.” I closed my eyes and hung my head. Jason was going to kill me, if Dad didn’t kill me first. “Does Dad know?”

“I don’t think so. Jason can be a jerk, but he’s still your brother, and we Pope kids look out for one another. I’m fairly certain you can expect a lecture from Jason, but I think your secret is safe as far as Dad is concerned. I think Jason and I are the only two who know about your little B and E escapade.”

“I didn’t break and enter. I had the key I found near Cole’s body.”

Justin just raised one eyebrow. “So that’s where the key went. We wondered why Cole didn’t have it with him.”

Interesting. I didn’t really take the key, so I also had to wonder why it wasn’t in Cole’s possession.

“Look, I didn’t take anything other than the photos. In fact, I was very careful not to touch anything or leave any evidence behind. I found the body and I was curious. You know how bad I want to be a cop. I figured if I could solve the case before anyone else, the HPD would have to give me the shot we both know I deserve. If I hadn’t dropped my phone when I swung out over the balcony I would have been home free.”

“You swung out over the balcony?”

I explained about Jason coming in and my need to make a quick escape.

“Look, kid, I get it. I’ve been living in Jason’s shadow ever since I joined the HPD and it gets old. But you aren’t
Hawaii Five-0
. You’re more like
Hawaii Five Foot-0
. If you keep messing around with this sort of thing you’re going to get hurt.”

“I’m as capable of figuring this out as you and Jason. I may be short, but I’m smart and I deserve a chance. Maybe if you would all stop blocking my acceptance into the academy I could work with you instead of on my own.”

“Hey.” Justin raised his hands in the air. “I can’t speak for Jason, but I’m not blocking anything. If you want my opinion, it’s stunts like this that are keeping you out. The HPD doesn’t have a lot of use for someone who acts first and thinks later.”

I hated to admit it, but Justin could be right. Maybe I should just apologize for what I’d done and then let the whole thing go.

“Maybe I should just leave,” I decided. “I don’t want to be responsible for causing a ruckus at Mom’s party.”

Justin looked toward the house. “I think you’re safe. It looks like Jeff has gone and diverted everyone’s attention.”

“I can’t believe Jeff and Candy got married,” I said to Kekoa later that afternoon. Once Jeff dropped his bombshell all hell broke loose, so I’d called Luke to tell him the party was off and I’d try to stop by later that evening so we could discuss the case. While I hadn’t learned a lot, Justin had said something that gave me an idea I wanted to explore further.

“Did your Mom flip out?”

Kekoa was still at work, so I’d stopped by the resort to fill her in on the latest gossip.

“Totally. Not only was Mom mad that Jeff married Candy but she was doubly mad that they’d eloped. There was one point when I seriously thought if she could have gotten her hands on Dad’s gun she would have shot Candy.”

“So what was your dad doing during all this?”

“At first he tried to play peacemaker between Jeff and Mom, but that only lasted for about five minutes and then he locked himself in his office with a bottle of whiskey. I know Jeff likes to stir things up—it’s always been sort of his thing—but even I have to admit he was way out of line. Not only did he spring this huge thing on everyone, but he as much as said that if Mom wanted to be a part of his life or part of the lives of the children they planned to have, she was going to have to make amends with Candy for the way she’d treated her.”

“Your mom treated Candy badly?”

“After Jeff and Candy broke up. Mom could see how bad Jeff was hurting, so she blamed her for the whole thing. She even went so far as to call her and say some really hurtful things. Jeff is the youngest boy and Mom babies him as much as she tries to baby me. I know her attitude toward Candy comes from a place of love, but things really got ugly. The only good thing to come out of it was that Jason was so busy trying to keep Mom from strangling Jeff that I managed to make my escape before he totally laid into me for sneaking into Cole’s room.”

“Do you think he knows I helped you?”

“No. I told Justin I used a key I’d found on the table next to where I’d found Cole’s body. He seemed to buy it because they didn’t actually find Cole’s room key on his body. Which makes me wonder if the person who killed him took the key for some reason.”

“You think the killer was in the room?”

“Maybe. It’s a theory worth exploring.”

I waited while Kekoa checked in a middle-aged couple who were visiting the resort for their anniversary. I wondered if I would ever find anyone I cared about enough to be married to for twenty-five years. From where I sat right now it seemed highly unlikely. Jason and Alana seemed happy enough, and I guess I could see them going the distance, but I had to agree with Mom that Jeff and Candy were heading for a train wreck.

It isn’t that I don’t like Candy. She’s actually fun to hang out with, and she’s only two years older than me, so we actually were good friends when she and Jeff were dating. The problem is that Candy has a short attention span. I know Jeff tells everyone their decision to split after high school was mutual, but Candy told me she had her sights on another guy long before the split actually happened. Looking back, I guess I should have told Jeff what I knew, but after they broke up I didn’t see the point. The poor guy was devastated. The last thing I wanted to do was pour salt in the wound. I suppose now it was way too late to have that conversation.

“I get off at seven. Do you want to do something tonight?” Kekoa asked after she’d completed her task.

“Maybe. I need to stop by to talk to Luke. How about if I text you?”

“Luke?”

“It’s about the case, nothing else. He knew Cole, and the background information he’s been able to provide has been helpful. We both know I don’t care for the guy, but I would be stupid not to accept his help.”

Kekoa didn’t say anything, but she grinned in such a way as to indicate that she could see my true intention in meeting with Luke, even if I wasn’t willing to admit it myself.

“Invite Luke to the condo. We’ll grab a pizza or something. I know I’ve been out of the loop on this whole Cole thing, but I want to help.”

“Can you print me a history of his visits to the resort?”

Kekoa frowned. “I want to help, not get fired.”

“Who will know?”

Kekoa sighed. “Okay. But don’t tell anyone where you got the information if the subject should come up.”

“Don’t worry; I won’t tell anyone you’ve helped me in anyway, even if I’m tortured. Print me a history for Patrick Anderson as well.”

Kekoa did as I’d asked.

“I’ll text you after I talk to Luke. Pizza sounds good, but if we go to the condo chances are we’ll be joined by whoever else is around. Maybe we should just meet at Luke’s. It’s a lot more private and he has a great patio.”

“That’d be cool. I’ve always wanted to check out his place. Is it okay if I ask Cam to come along?”

“As long as it’s just Cam. If he had plans with Makena don’t bring them. I think it’s best at this point that we keep our investigation between us. Do you happen to know if Drake is working today? I wanted to ask him about a redhead I saw on the beach.”

“Yeah, he’s here. In fact, he’s working command in the office today because Mitch is off. Did you hear that Mitch put in a request to personnel to formally promote Drake to his assistant?”

“What? Why Drake? Cam and I have been here longer, and we’re both a lot more qualified.”

Kekoa leaned in close. “You didn’t hear this from me, but Kimo told me that he saw Mitch and Drake’s aunt dancing and drinking into the wee hours of the morning on the night of the storm. I checked the records, and Mitch also used one of his comps for the hotel that night. If you ask me, things are heating up between them, and I’m sure Mitch is feeling the pressure to kiss up to Drake.”

I rolled my eyes. Mitch was a nice guy and an okay boss, but he did tend to think with a part of his anatomy well south of his brain. If Drake was promoted to assistant director of the WSO team, I was going to have no choice but to look for another job. The guy was an idiot.

“Do you think personnel will actually promote him over Cam and me?”

“Decisions about hiring, firing, and promotions are handled by the personnel department. All Mitch can really do is put in a recommendation. It’s been my experience that the recommendation of the current supervisor is taken into account quite a lot. I’d say there’s a good chance the promotion will go through.”

“Great, and I thought hearing that Jason found my phone was going to be the worst news I’d hear all day.”

There were some days when you realized you should have just stayed in bed. I was afraid today was shaping up to be one of them.

I’m not sure how he did it, but somehow within thirty minutes of arriving at Luke’s, he had me calmed down, relaxed, and focused on the case. I explained that neither Anderson nor Devlin were on the island at the time of Cole’s death and that both men had commented that without him, the funding for the project was in jeopardy, and that Sean had said the resort owner who had hosted his stay in Mexico was of the opinion that Cole was using the land to scam investors even though he knew the project was doomed to fail. “What if one or both of Cole’s partners found out about the scam and decided to get rid of him before they could be linked to his illegal activity?”

Luke frowned. It appeared he was considering my theory but wasn’t fully sold. “The Branson Cole I remember might not always have looked really closely at the source of the money provided by the investors he worked with, but I don’t see him intentionally scamming anyone. His connections were his livelihood. It would take only one scam on his part to undo a lifetime of relationship building. Maybe Cole was raising funds based on his belief that the project was legitimate when in actuality one or both of his partners were up to no good. Maybe he found out about it and the partner who was really behind the scam had him killed.”

“I guess we can’t know until we find the killer. The person who slipped the toxin into Cole’s drink had to have been someone on the beach that day. I still suspect both the brunette who brought Cole the drink and the redhead I spoke to on the beach. One or both of them might be the key to figuring this whole thing out.”

“Are you sure there
was
a brunette? The redhead told you the drink was delivered by a brunette, but you really only have her word for it. Maybe the redhead was the one who poisoned Cole and she just wanted to throw you off by mentioning someone else.”

I had to admit that was a possibility I hadn’t considered. I was pretty sure the redhead had lied about at least part of what she’d told me. For one thing, she’d said she’d been there all day yet no one remembered seeing her, including Drake. Drake was a lousy safety officer, but he was a huge horn dog. The redhead was a beautiful woman. If she’d been on the beach all day Drake would have noticed her.

And she’d been the closest to the body when I left the beach with Kekoa. It was completely possible she was the one who’d taken the glass. Although if she was the one to poison Cole, why point out the glass in the first place? In fact, why would she show up at the crime scene at all? If she was the guilty party, it seemed she would have been long gone by the time it was discovered Cole was dead.

I was trying to make up my mind about what to do next when my phone dinged, informing me I had a text. It was Kekoa.

“I told Kekoa I was coming over to discuss the murder with you and she wondered if she and Cam could join us. I’ve been speaking to both of them about my efforts, so they know what’s going on.”

“Certainly. I’d love to have them stay for dinner. I have some steaks I can barbecue. Tell them to bring suits if they want to swim.”

I relayed the information to Kekoa while Luke went inside to defrost the meat. It was quiet and peaceful on Luke’s patio. I could see why he loved spending time out here. The sound of the waterfall was relaxing and the cool breeze from the coast must make for very pleasant evenings. I wondered if Luke got lonely up here on his horse ranch all by himself. Of course he had Brody for company. I guess I could see why he kept him around.

I took out the lodging histories for Branson Cole and Patrick Anderson. I’m not sure what I was looking for, but I found it odd that they had never stayed at the resort at the same time. I wondered how they’d met. I seemed to remember Kimo saying Anderson had said it was Devlin who’d both approached Anderson and brought Cole to the table. Maybe the key to this whole thing was in figuring out exactly who Devlin was and what role he might play in the scam, if there even was a scam.

Jason had mentioned speaking to Devlin, which meant he most likely had a file on him. I was pondering the implications of trying to get another look at his computer when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. It was Alana.

“Hey, sis, what’s up?” Although Alana and I weren’t actually sisters, we’d taken to referring to each other in that manner after she’d married Jason.

“I’m just calling to give you a heads-up that Jason is on his way to your condo to confront you about the photos he found on your phone. Thanks to a very tense afternoon trying to keep your mom from strangling Candy, he isn’t in a good mood, and at this point I wouldn’t put it past him to arrest you for your own well-being.”

“Luckily I’m not at home, nor do I plan to be at home anytime soon, but I appreciate the warning. Are you still at Mom’s?”

“No, the kids and I are home now. Jason dropped us off before heading to your place. Can you believe the bombshell Jeff dropped? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen your mom that mad.”

“It did seem like Jeff meant to announce his marriage to Candy in a way that would guarantee maximum carnage. Sometimes I don’t get him. I know he thinks it’s fun to stir things up, but in this case I’m afraid he might actually have damaged his relationship with Mom. They’ve always been really close. In fact, Jeff is probably—or maybe I should say
was
probably—the closest to Mom of all us kids.”

“Maybe that was it. Maybe he wanted to put some distance in the relationship. Your mom does tend to coddle him. Probably even more than she coddles you.”

“Yeah, I guess, but all he’s done is cement the fact that Mom is never going to accept Candy into the family. If Jeff really wanted her to be welcomed, he should have slowed things way down and let Mom get used to the idea that she was back.”

Sandy must have noticed the stress in my voice because he got up from his spot in the shade and wandered over to put his head in my lap. I lazily scratched him behind the ears.

“Did you leave before Mom threatened Jeff with her big frying pan?” Alana asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Mom was only an inch taller than me and just as thin, whereas Jeff was a good six three and built like a Mack truck. “Yeah, I guess I did. I’m sorry I missed that. I would have stayed for the whole show, but Justin told me Jason found my phone, so I used the diversion to make my escape.”

“Good thinking. Now is probably not the best time to try to explain yourself to Jason. He’s really worked up and who knows if he’s thinking clearly?”

“He’s too overprotective.”

Alana didn’t answer right away. When she did there was a seriousness in her voice that hadn’t been there before. “I called you because I don’t think this is the best time for you and Jason to chat, but I
am
concerned about your actions. You could have gotten yourself killed. You aren’t a cop and you don’t have a gun. I don’t think any of us believes what you did was justified. Jason might be hard on you at times, but it’s because he loves you and doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”

“But he treats me like a baby.”

“No, he treats you like a person who, at times, demonstrates a lack of common sense. He treats you like a person who, at times, only thinks of herself and not how her actions will affect others. It occurred to me after I found out about the photos that the reason you came by the other morning was most likely to snoop. Very uncool.”

Great. Now I’d made Alana mad. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to pump you for information about the case.” I decided not to mention that I’d hacked into Jason’s computer. That would really make everyone mad. “I really just want Jason and everyone else to take me seriously. I’ve wanted to be a cop my whole life, but as long as my well-meaning family keeps using their connections to make certain I’ll never get a shot I have no choice but to leave the islands or give up my dream. It’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not fair,” Alana agreed. “I’ve tried to talk to Jason about the subject, but he’s just so dang protective of you. Still, he’s not wrong about the fact that you’re impulsive, and an impulsive cop is too often a dead cop.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Look, you make a good point. I promise not to play Spider-Man the next time Jason catches me in a compromising position.”

“Spider-Man?”

It took quite a lot of quick talking to explain away the Spider-Man comment without actually telling Alana about my balcony escape. I was already in trouble with my older brother. If he found out exactly how I’d managed to avoid him, he’d lock me up and throw away the key for sure.

By the time I got off the phone with Alana, Luke had returned to the patio.

“Problems?” he asked.

“That was my sister-in-law warning me that my brother is on his way to my condo to read me the riot act about breaking into Cole’s suite. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not home. Hopefully by the time I do get there he’ll have given up on the idea at least for today. This thing between Jeff and my mom has him all worked up and Alana is afraid he’s going to take out his frustrations on me.”

“What about tomorrow?”

“I’m off work, so as long as I get up really early and head somewhere Jason won’t think to look for me I should be safe.”

“I have plenty of guest rooms if you and Sandy want to stay here.”

Oh, boy, was that a bad idea. “Thanks; I just might. If I call Kekoa before she comes out I can have her bring me my toothbrush and a change of clothes.” As I said it, I realized I was never going to hear the end of it from Cam, but a little teasing seemed like the better choice compared to being ripped a new one by Jason. “Thanks for the offer.”

“Trust me, I feel your pain. I know how it is when a family member thinks they know what’s better for you than you do.”

“Sounds like something specific.”

“My sister called yesterday to let me know that an old friend was coming to the island next month and she’d assured her I would be fine with her staying with me.”

“So? That sounds nice.”

“The friend is one of my sister’s best friends and it seemed obvious that matchmaking was very much on my sister’s mind.”

“Ouch.”

“Ouch is right. It’s not that I have any ill feelings toward this woman. She’s a nice person and I actually like her. It’s just that I know her feelings for me are somewhat other than just being friends, and my sister has hopes the two of us will hook up once I decide it’s time to settle down. In fact, she’s actually said as much.”

“What are you going to do?”

Luke shrugged. “I guess I’m going to have to let her stay here. My sister already made the offer and I hate to make a big deal out of it. I just hope I can protect my virtue,” he teased. “The woman is a barracuda.”

I laughed. “If it helps, I can pretend to be your girlfriend while she’s here.”

“I just might take
you
up on that.”

I was kidding when I made the offer, but something told me that Luke was quite serious. How did I get myself into these things?

“I’m going to head over to the barn to check on the horses before Cam and Kekoa get here. Do you want to come?”

I found I actually did. I know what I’ve said about horses and I have absolutely not changed my mind, but I welcomed the chance to get another peek at Lucifer.