Demon's Match

by Dylan Keefer

  “Well, just around the corner it goes out between a bunch of rich houses and goes out into the ocean eventually.” “Does anyone ever pull their boat up here?”

  The manager frowned. “No,” he said. “Our property is private, and we don't allow people to come from off the water. And the boats that pass by are big ones.” “So, you would know if I boat pulled up here, right?” “Exactly,” the manager said. Raine raised an eyebrow. “A boat, but nothing smaller?” The manager frowned deeper. He thought for a moment. “You think that someone pulled a canoe up into the weeds that line the shore there?” “Do you mind if we walk back there and look?”

  The manager shrugged. “I wouldn't advise it. There is no path, the grass and weeds are overgrown, and I'm not sure what type of animals you'll find.” “It's okay. We'll be fine right?” She looked at Mano who really didn't think he had a choice in the matter.

  “It's pretty dark out now,” the manager warned.

  “Got a flashlight in my car,” Raine said already heading that direction.

  Wearing pants had been a good idea; even if earlier, she had regretted it. Mano trudged through the long grass behind her with the flashlight on his phone scanning the area for anything slithering or crawling.

  “What exactly do you think we're going to find?”

  “What we need to find?”

  “So, I'm assuming that if we are looking for evidence for someone else that you believe Naia is innocent?”

  Raine didn't answer. She knew that Naia was innocent of her fiancé’s kidnapping, but she was far from innocent like Mano thought she was. “What's your deal with her anyway?” “What?” Mano walked a little quicker to catch up. “You and Naia. You and she are friends?”

  “Yeah,” Mano said. “We've known each other for a long time.” “And how many girlfriends have you had?”

  "Um," Mano verbally paused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

  Raine glanced towards him. "You've never had a girlfriend, but you've been on plenty of dates which have been mostly set up by Naia. You've been in her friend zone for so long that you hoped she would somehow see you and realize that you were the one she wanted all along." Mano didn't say anything. Raine stopped walking. "Mano, how do I know that you didn't do this so you could get rid of the competition for Naia's heart?"

  “What! I wouldn't!” Raine crossed her arms and glared at him. Mano shrunk back a little. “Okay, so I'm in love with her. I've always loved her. But—but she's happy with Alex. He's the one that changed her. She was the party girl, and I was the lonely boy. Alex is the white knight, not me. I would never do anything to hurt her though.”

  Raine sighed. "I know you wouldn't. And for what it's worth, she probably does know you're there. She just had got an obstacle in the way that is causing her to be afraid to see you."

  "You sound like you're talking from experience," Mano observed. Was she? Could Micah be the one that was standing there now, and she was just too afraid to let the real her out so that she could open herself up to him?

  Their feet began to sink into the mud, and the weeds stopped. Both lights scanned the shoreline.

  “The party was later than this, right?” Mano nodded. Raine looked back towards the patio. “There's no way anyone would notice someone come through here.”

  She started to walk the shoreline. “Walk that way,” she pointed in the opposite direction. If Eli had come through here, he would have brought the boat into the grass from a good distance away. He would have been muddy and wet; so, he probably didn't have normal clothes on. Raine finally saw what she was looking for—an area of grass flattened down in the perfect boat shape. Globs of dried mud led away from the area and grass was flattened where the footprints were.

  “Okay,” Mano said. “So, we know someone was here. But what about Naia passing out? She says that she was drugged, but there were no drugs in her system.” Raine chewed on her lip. “I haven't figured that out yet. But at least, we can confidently say that there was someone here.” “So, do we tell the police or call someone?”

  Raine looked at Mano. How could she tell him that unless they actually found Eli or Alex, Naia was screwed? She had to get access to the information that the MP had, and she had to find the boat. Micah wasn't going to help her, but - but maybe Tai would.

  Chapter Five

  The apartment complex had several floors, and the elevator wasn't working. Micah started climbing the stairs to the fifth floor. Last night had yielded a lot of information about Naia. The more that Micah had learned from people in her life, the more that he didn't like the conclusions he was coming up with. She was smart, persuasive, and cunning.

  “Truthfully, Naia has potential beyond what she wants to do,” her boss at the Wave told him. “I mean, this girl can find anything about anyone. She could do your job for you.” “But you hired her as an investigative journalist,” Micah had asked him. “What type of stories did she write?”

  He was handed a phone with the Wave app on it, and Micah browsed through all Naia's stories. There were political pieces about government, entertainment, business—all of them in depth with interviews that told of corruption and conspiracy. “She's good,” he surmised.

  “Good?” her boss said. “She's got over a million readers and followers internationally. When she writes something, people read it. When she tweets something, people retweet. When she posts, people share.” “Hard to believe that someone this famous doesn't get a lot of—problem people in her life,” Micah said. “She didn't have any enemies or stalkers?” “Naia is smart. She never posts anything personal about herself, never posts photos of herself, and she uses a different name online in reference to her work. See up top?”

  Everything posted was under the name 'Athena.' "The Greek goddess of reason and intellect."

  “And literary art,” her boss added. “Fits, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Micah said giving the man back his phone. “What do you know about her personal life with her boyfriend?”

  The man shook his head. “Nothing. She never went into detail about her life outside of work. The only one who stayed close with her in the real world is Mano. He's another intern here. You should talk to him.”

  But Micah had struck out in that department. This Mano character wasn't at home, work, and seemed to be unable to be located. There were officers placed outside of his home to bring him in for questioning, and Micah left it at that. He went to talk to some of Alex's buddies in command.

  “You think he's dead?”

  Micah sat at a booth in one of the bars near the naval base. Officer Jones and Office Cann sat across from him with beers in their hands.

  “We don't know if he's dead?” “I can't believe it,” Jones said. “Alex is a standup guy. He's the guy you want in your corner at all times. Alex is the reason a lot of us didn't give up or get depressed. He always had a positive attitude.” “Did he talk to you guys about his relationship at all?”

  They both chuckled. “I think that was one of the reasons he was so positive,” Cann said. “He was always talking about his 'island firecracker'. The guy was whipped.” “We all thought he was crazy when he came back from a funeral and said that he met a girl who turned his life upside down,” Jones said. “He met her at a funeral?” Micah said. “Yeah, a good friend of Alex's was killed during a home invasion, and Naia was at the funeral, too. I guess she gave him some comfort, and that started a conversation.”

  “Honestly, we didn't think they would really get together when he talked about how much of a party girl she was,” Jones took a swig of his beer. “But they were good for each other. She got him to loosen up, and he kept her grounded.”

  Micah had left the two men convinced that either Naia had changed because of Alex or that Alex really didn't know the real Naia. Or both, he thought.

  His legs felt tired as he stretched himself once he exited the staircase on the fifth floor. Apartment 53b. Micah found the right door and knocked on it. The
door opened slightly as a pair of eyes peeked at him from underneath the door chain. “Who are you?” “Lieutenant Micah Duscane. I'm with the military police, and I'm looking for Janice Land. Does she live here?”

  The door closed, and Micah heard the chain being removed. When the door opened, the woman stepped out and closed the door behind her. Her clothes were wrinkled and stained. She tucked her hair behind her head and cleared her throat.

  “I'm Janice. What do you need?” Micah looked around. “You would like to talk in the hallway instead of inside?”

  “I'm not one to invite people into my home. Sorry.”

  “No apology necessary,” Micah said. “I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your husband and son's funeral.”

  Janice laughed. “God, I'll never be able to escape that.” She leaned her back against the door. “That's all that I get people talking about, and it's been years.”

  “I'm sorry to bring it up, but I'm working on a case that involves a friend of your son's. Alex White.” Janice nodded. “Alex knew my son. What is going on with him?” “Well, we believe he was abducted. Right now, all we have as a suspect is his fiancé, Naia Maitai.” Janice stood up straight. Her jaw was clenched tight. Her breath quickened. “Did you know that Alex and Naia met at the funeral.” “I knew. That evil whore wasn't invited, but I couldn't very well cause a scene there,” Janice stomped her foot. “Naia Maitai killed my husband and son, and if you have evidence saying that she did something to Alex, then you've got your person.” “What do you have against her?”

  “Long story short,” she began, “her father worked with my husband was accused of stealing money. She turned it around and made it seem like my husband was the one who did it. She made it public, and—my husband didn't have the best past. He had gotten away from working with a very bad group of people. When she outted him and put his name on blast, they came looking for him. They killed him because of what she did. She wanted to destroy us.” “How do you know that Naia was behind it?”

  “Because my son said a girl matching Naia's description showed up to him at college and asked him out to a party. When he met up with her, she asked him all sorts of questions about us—about his father. When the stories came out online and in the news, and when the police started to question my husband about the missing money from his company, I knew.”

  “Why didn't you come forward and tell the police what you knew?”

  “If you saw the information, detailed stories, and evidence that was leaked about my husband, you would know,” Janice said. “I was scared of what she could do to me. I didn't know that she had already made my life a living hell.”

  She saw the question in Micah's eyes and flung open the door to her apartment. Micah stared past her and tried to curb his reaction to the little that he could see. The place was a mess. It looked like it had never been attempted to be cleaned.

  “Yeah,” Janice said. “I'm telling you to get that girl before she gets you.”

  ***

  Convincing her family that going to her own place was a good option was hard. Naia's dad and brother had gone to get her car and come back furious when they found that the car had been broken into. She had tried to look upset at the news, but that was hard to accomplish. Her father had called the police about the issue, and they had said that if nothing was confirmed missing, they couldn't help.

  “So, they are all ready to do their jobs when my daughter is being accused, but when she is in trouble, they won't do anything!” He yelled to her mother.

  “I think that it would be best if I went to my place.”

  “No!” her father had refused. “I'm not going to let you be alone when obviously someone is out to get you.”

  “I'm going to be fine, dad,” she said. “If you haven't noticed, the cops that they have watching the house aren't going to let me out of their sight.”

  "The same cops who won't do anything about your car!"

  "Dad, they're military police, and they aren't going to have any jurisdiction to deal with a car that has its window broken, but nothing was stolen." She pleaded with her mother. "I promise to check in every couple of hours. I just need some space."

  Her parents had looked at each other. “Fine,” her father said. “I'll drive you then.”

  “I called Mano,” Naia said. “He's almost here.”

  The only reason that her father trusted Mano was because he thought that Mano was gay. In his mind, no straight guy hung around a girl that much and wasn't attracted to her or didn't make a move on her. Naia knew the truth, but she didn't tell anyone. Part of it was for Mano's sake. She didn't want to embarrass him. Truthfully, it had taken her a lot longer to figure it out that it should have. Naia had set Mano up on several failed dates, had treated him like a best friend for years, and taken his allegiance for granted a lot before she realized that Mano loved her. While she tried to ignore it, and pretend like she had no clue, it scared her to death. She had grown to love him, too, but Mano—wasn't Alex. Mano was her ride or die, but Alex was her savior. She just hoped that her sins hadn't crucified him.

  On the car ride over, Mano filled her in on everything that he and Raine had found and discussed. For the first time, there was a glimmer of hope.

  “We just need to figure out where that boat is, and we might be able to find the person who did this to you.”

  “You never doubted that I didn't do this, did you?” Naia asked him from the passenger's seat of his car. Mano shook his head quickly and glanced at her with a look that seemed offended that she would even ask. “I can even see that my family has some doubts.”

  "They should know that you wouldn't hurt anybody—not on purpose." There it was. Mano believed that she was a hell of a lot better than she was.

  They arrived at her and Alex's apartment. Naia reached for the door handle and then paused. “Do you—um—want to come in and hang out for a bit?”

  Mano smiled. “Sure. I know things have got to still be scary for you I'll stay as long as you want.”

  Naia grabbed two beers from the fridge, and Mano laughed. “You know that I don't drink beer.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she winked. “These are for me. I'm gonna get you a soda.”

  Mano sat down on the couch, and Naia sat down beside him. For a moment, they were silent. Mano watched her put on some chapstick and then shove the tube back in her pocket. Then she sighed as she stared down at her engagement ring. “He did a good job picking it out.”

  “I know. It's like he knew the exact thing I would pick out. It's amazing.” She took it off and looked at it. “Funny thing is that Alex and I have never talked about rings before. I don't wear a lot of jewelry; so, there is nothing to go off when it comes to that. I think that I've only mentioned to two people what type of ring I would want to have—Allison and you.”

  Mano grinned. “Guilty,” she punched him in the leg. He curled up. “Hey!”

  “You deserve that for keeping all of this from me,” she said sliding the ring back on her finger. “Do you think he's okay? What if I only have a fiancé for a night?”

  Mano grabbed Naia's hand and slid closer to her. She laid her head on his shoulder.

  "They're going to find him. I promise, and I'm going to be here for you no matter what."

  Naia smiled. “I know you...”

  “Because I love you.”

  Naia felt her heart stopped. Did he just say that? I'm just hearing things, right? She sat up and looked at him. His eyes told her that she hadn't been hearing things. There was a panic in them as both searched for the words to say. Mano leaned towards her and cupped the back of her neck with his hand. Naia shuddered as he brought his lips to hers. They touched briefly before she jolted back.

  “No!” Naia stood up and let out a frustrated whine. “Why! Why did you have to say that? I can't ignore it if you tell me!”

  “Ignore it?” Mano shook his head. “Why would you ignore it?”

  “Because if I ignore the
fact that you love me, then I ignore the fact that the girl who you love is a lie. I'm not that girl.”

  “You are the girl,” Mano stood up. “You're not the party girl who only cares about herself and how many boys want to be with her. You are different than you were back in college.” “And that's not because of you. It's because of Alex.”

  Mano turned away. She was right on that. Alex had been the one to inspire change in Naia while Mano had only fallen for the fantasy of what Naia could be. In that, he had let himself go. He had devoted himself to a girl who never would be his—he still was.

  Naia grabbed his hand and sat down. “Listen, Mano. I need to tell you something, a secret that I've been hiding from everyone—even Alex. You're right, I'm not who I was, but I need you to know exactly who I was for you to understand what's going on.”

  Mano sat down again and nodded. “What is it?” Naia took a deep breath. “Remember when my dad was accused of stealing from his company?”

  Chapter Six

  Malanie ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. Tai was stuffing his face with food.

  “You made Loco Moco?” Malanie laughed as she sat down. Lao smiled and nodded at Tai. “When I know that he is going to be out and won't have time for lunch, I make him this. It fills him up enough to where he doesn't stop for fast food.”

  Tai frowned. “I feel like you low key callin' me fat,” he said with his mouth full. Malanie coughed.

  “You're not fat, Tai. You are just rotundly challenged.” That made Lao laugh.

  “Now, I know you callin' me fat,” he said and stuffed more food in his mouth on purpose.

  “I'm going to take breakfast to go,” Malanie said. “I want to get to school early. I'm working on a project for the swim team.”

  Lao quickly wrapped up a paper plate of the eggs, rice, and pork and handed it to Malanie. “Have a good day at school?”

  When the front door opened, Malanie jumped back at the face that greeted her. “Didn't mean to scare you,” Raine said as the girl caught her breath again.