by Toby Neal
Leaving the recovery cocoon at her father’s place had been difficult, but business pressed in on both her and Connor. She planned to assume her Mary Watson identity once the job on Maui was over, and go back to her anonymous little apartment, though neither of them would relax until Assan Ang was back in custody—or dead.
Sophie hadn’t asked, but was fairly certain the Ghost was working on a plan involving the latter.
The mischievous wind of Maui tugged at Sophie’s lengthening curls as she waited on the curb at the Maui Airport for Jake, who’d flown back to the island right after her rescue to resume his work for Shank Miller.
“Howdy, stranger,” Jake hollered through the rolled-down window of a shiny black Toyota Tacoma loaded with ocean sports equipment on roof racks—several surfboards, a single man canoe, the colorful foils of rolled kiteboard sails.
Sophie grinned, relief that he wasn’t going to make things awkward lifting her voice into buoyant as she opened the passenger door and tossed her backpack into the extended cab. “Trust you, Jake, to make the most of a job and find some ways to play.”
“You got that right.” Jake tugged down his mirrored sunglasses to peer at her over the rims. “You look…much better. Well-rested.”
There was an edge to his voice.
Sophie shrugged, hoping she wasn’t blushing. She wasn’t ready to joke about her relationship with Connor, especially with Jake. “Just needed a little time to recover. I told you I was okay.”
Jake bounced his brows at her suggestively, but said no more as he maneuvered the truck away from the curb. “What’s your first stop?”
“I have to go to the Kakela site and take down the tech equipment there. I’d appreciate your help.” She waggled her hand. The resin cast was lightweight, and only covered her hand, leaving the wrist mobile, but it was still going to provide challenges in taking down the surveillance equipment strung up around the site.
“I always knew you only wanted me for my body.”
Sophie glanced at Jake sharply, but his eyes were on the road ahead, and a smile curved his mouth. Just more of his borderline inappropriate humor.
“I also have to meet with Pomai Magnuson to give her a check from the Blackthorne estate and pick up our billing. I was hoping you could take down the tech equipment while I meet with Pomai in the trailer. She’s on her way.”
“No problem. I cleared my schedule this morning.”
“Thank you. Why don’t you tell me what the latest is with the rock star job? How are things coming along at Shank Miller’s?”
Jake proceeded to fill her in as they drove along the curving Pali Highway to Lahaina. Sophie sneaked glances past him to take in the vistas, hoping to spot whale spume out off the coast.
“The grounds are mostly secure; I’m interviewing now for his ongoing security team. I was saving you to install the nanny cam A.I. system,” he concluded.
“So it appears we will be here on Maui several weeks at least,” Sophie said, unable to keep a note of despondency out of her voice. “That software has to learn the host’s habit patterns and needs a lot of training and adjustment at first.”
“Can’t wait to get back to the boyfriend, can you?” This time there was definitely an edge to Jake’s tone.
Sophie frowned. Maybe he was feeling unappreciated. “I never thanked you for helping me out of Blackthorne’s vault when I was injured. How did you even know where I was?”
“Lei kept me apprised, because I asked her to. Knew I couldn’t count on you to communicate.”
Sophie narrowed her eyes in annoyance. He wasn’t stopping with the verbal jabs.
Jake went on. “I was already on island for Security Solutions’ business when I heard things were going south with your case.” He tightened his jaw, and the muscle in his cheek seemed to vibrate. “Second time I’ve about had a heart attack.”
“Well, thanks for the concern—but I don’t think it was necessary. There were plenty of people around, and I’m sure the SWAT team and the medics could have gotten me out of there without your help.” A flush heated Sophie’s neck at the memory of being carried out by Jake—she hadn’t even been surprised it was him, and she’d felt safe, comforted—feelings she didn’t associate with him on a daily basis. Affection and annoyance were more the usual, with a swirl of sexual attraction, if she were totally honest.
Sophie’s frown had begun to feel stitched onto her forehead. She couldn’t understand or like her conflicting feelings. Avoidance was definitely the best policy. She didn’t want to think of anyone but Connor. “I’m not sure this partnership is working. I think I’ll ask Bix to reassign me.”
A long pause. Sophie glanced over at Jake. His eyes were forward, his hands white-knuckled on the wheel of the truck, but his voice was carefully casual as he said, “I would have appreciated you telling me that before I briefed you on the Miller case. If I’m going to be working with another operative, I could have saved the update so I didn’t have to repeat myself.”
“Sorry. I will tell Bix I’m just not physically up to working again so soon on an off-island job. He can find something for me back on Oahu and get you another partner.”
“And what will you tell him about getting another partner?” Jake truly sounded like he didn’t care—curious, a little annoyed. “Because I’m not going to make something up for you. You’re the one having a problem.”
The beauty of Maui: glittering cobalt ocean, fluffy clouds, swaying palms—all of it passed unseeing by Sophie’s eyes. She wished she were anywhere but here. It was hard for her to confront him—his size, loud voice, overbearing manner—it all made her want to retreat after her years with Assan. But he wasn’t Assan. He would never abuse or mistreat her. And didn’t he deserve the truth after all they’d been through together, in such a short time?
“No, Jake, you’re the one having a problem. You don’t like me being with Todd.”
Jake snorted and flapped a hand. “Sleeping with the boss? Sure, go for it. Shack up with the CEO of our company. Way to work your way up.”
Sophie’s frown deepened. She didn’t like his tone and didn’t understand all his euphemisms, but the gist came through loud and clear. And what was his tone? Sarcasm? Or hurt?
Maybe both. She’d never been good at nuances. In a verbal boxing ring, he was always going to win.
“I’m not sleeping with him yet, but we are in a relationship.” Sophie’s voice sounded stiff, even to her own ears. “I know you’re upset about the situation, but I’m happy with Todd. I have had a bad time with men, and he is good to me. He is right for me.” Her eyes filled, and she turned her face against the window, leaning her forehead on the cool glass. They passed through the tunnel going into Lahaina with its bright rainbow painted on the entrance, and she shut her eyes as horns honked. “I don’t know how to make this okay with you.”
She kept her eyes shut, and heard Jake sigh.
“I’m sorry I was an ass about it. You deserve to be happy.” He patted her arm awkwardly. “I want that for you.”
“Do you still want to work with me? Because I still want to work with you. But just like before, when you were making all those sexual jokes—it has to stop. Comments about me and Todd. Mean things you say. I can’t deal with it.” Sophie caught his gaze and blinked away the moisture welling in her eyes. “I don’t know how.”
“Aw, Soph. Damn it, don’t cry. I can’t handle that. Dirty pool.” Jake blew out a breath. “We can make this work. I just never expected it to be…so hard.”
All they couldn’t say seemed to fill the cab of the truck. Sophie felt like they’d stood at a precipice and both of them had taken a long look into the depths—and backed away from the edge.
She tried a change of topic. “Whose truck and sports equipment are these? Pretty nice ocean sports toys.”
Jake seemed to grasp it like a lifeline. “Shank Miller’s. He keeps the truck here for tooling around so he looks like a local and blends better. The guy’s basically
a workaholic, though, always working on his music, and he has no idea how to surf or use any of this shit. So I’ve been taking him out, teaching him a thing or two, and providing his security at the same time.”
“He’s lucky to have you. And so am I.” Sophie patted Jake’s arm awkwardly, a gesture that mirrored the one he’d given her.
“You know me. Always with the lemons and lemonade.”
Sophie didn’t know exactly what he meant, but his voice was Jake again—confident, upbeat. She relaxed, smiling, and rested her head on the seat back as he told her the best places to surf on the way to Lahaina. “I’ll take you and Shank out for a lesson. It’ll be hilarious.”
At the Kakela site, Jake reached back into the extended cab and grabbed a toolbox, setting off without a word toward the broken sensors and surveillance cams set up around the corners of the property—though vandalized, they were still Security Solutions’ responsibility.
Sophie took a moment to blow out a breath, straighten her clothes and hair, and set herself right, mentally and emotionally. Thank God they were able to work it out. She got out of the truck and headed for the trailer.
“Welcome back to Maui.” Meeting Sophie in the trailer, Pomai Magnuson was polished and stylishly dressed, as usual. Her light embrace and gardenia perfume enfolded Sophie. “So glad we got the lunatic behind all of this, and better yet, that he gave the Hui such an amazing donation.”
“I wish he had just written the nonprofit a check,” Sophie said, taking the envelope holding the check out of her bag and handing it to Pomai. “I could have done without the whole hostage standoff that went on—he took his life at my hand.”
“Oh my God. I’m so tactless.” Pomai’s face fell and she covered her mouth with a hand, shaking her head. “So sorry you went through that. I didn’t mean to make light of it. I guess I just don’t understand what he was trying to do, when he extracted those artifacts and then provided for them to be reburied.”
“I can’t discuss it,” Sophie said. “I wish I could, but it’s confidential. He was not a well man.”
Pomai nodded. “I understand. We heard a bit from Sergeant Texeira. I’m just glad you’re OK.”
“Unlike Seth Mano. He got the brunt of Blackthorne’s issues—to the back of his head.” Sophie pulled out the familiar rump-sprung chair and rubbed her sore ankle.
“That asshole. He deserved exactly what he got.” Pomai had steel in her voice. The Hawaiian woman gathered thick, lustrous black hair and wound it into a quick knot on her head, spearing it with a pencil from the desk, each movement quick and definite. “After he was killed, I ordered a full audit of all of our board and banking transactions. As president of the board, he had check signing rights. And, as I suspected, he was embezzling from the nonprofit.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, well. I always knew he was a scumbag.” Pomai walked around the desk and picked up a folder, handing it to Sophie. “Here are your invoices and payment in full for Security Solutions.”
Sophie accepted the folder. “I still have to take down the monitors in this office,” she said. “It was nice to meet you, and work with you, even for a short time.”
“Definitely mutual.” Pomai looked out the window of the trailer and Sophie’s eyes followed hers to where Jake was up on a ladder, taking down the surveillance cam. His tight black shirt and matching cargo pants made the most of his physique. “That your partner? I’m beginning to wish we’d hired him too.”
“He’s staying on the island for a job, so he’s available in case you still need someone,” Sophie said.
Pomai’s rich brown eyes met hers with a twinkle and a raised brow. The other woman smiled. “Good to know. I think I’ll go say hi.”
Pomai lifted a hand in farewell, and Sophie sat down in front of the monitors. Disconnecting the cords and monitors and packing them into the boxes they’d shipped them in, she watched Pomai, in her tight, fitted plumeria-print sheath dress, sashay over to Jake on the ladder. The other woman shielded her eyes with a hand as she talked to him, and he descended to meet her. They appeared to be hitting it off.
A long, black hair, fallen from Pomai’s bun, lay on the desk.
Sophie looked at it for a thoughtful moment, then used a piece of Scotch tape to collect the hair. She took out her phone. “Lei? Did you rule out Pomai Magnuson as a contributor to that hair on Mano’s body?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sophie sat in the observation room at the Kahului Station watching Lei and her partner, Pono, interview Pomai Magnuson the next morning. After they wrapped up the Kakela site, she stayed one more night at the condo she had been staying in. Jake had shown her around Shank Miller’s compound to see the security upgrades he’d put in, and they brainstormed their roles for the rest of the job. Lei had called her late in the evening to tell her the hair she’d taken in was a match to Magnuson, and invited Sophie to observe.
The Hui director was poised and polished, as usual, smoothing another sheath dress, this time in hibiscus print, down toward her knees. Her attorney, a Caucasian named Keone Chapman, sat beside her. Pono, looking large and reassuring in a muted Aloha shirt and chinos, made an attempt at congeniality. “Always nice to see you, Pomai. Mahalo for making time to come in.”
Pomai folded her arms. “Chee, brah. Nevah expec’ dis from you, Pono. What, my classmate nevah can gimme one heads-up?”
“Police business, Pomai. No make pilikia—jus’ answer the questions.” Pono got up and turned on the recording equipment, stating the date, time, members present. Sophie frowned—she hadn’t known Pomai was a classmate of Pono’s—but in Hawaii, someone was always a cousin, auntie, or some kind of connection.
Lei, looking businesslike and ready for action in jeans, a black tank top and a red jacket, opened a file in front of her and fired the opening salvo.
“Tell me about your relationship with Seth Mano.”
Keone Chapman held up a hand. “Why are you harassing my client? She has already answered these questions, been interviewed, and has an alibi—and the case is closed.”
“It’s a murder investigation. The case is never closed if new information comes to light, and it has. We are interviewing several people key to the investigation. Ms. Magnuson is one of them. Now, Ms. Magnuson, would you like me to repeat the question?” Lei asked. The window into the room faced the witnesses, so Sophie could only see the back of Lei’s head, but she could read the tense alertness of her friend’s body, the way even the curls on her head seemed to quiver at attention.
Pomai shrugged, playing with a couple of gold bangles on her wrist. “Our relationship was strictly business. Seth was the President of the Board of Directors of the Hui, and I am their employee. I often answered to him related to Hui business.”
“Please state your whereabouts on the night that Mano was killed.”
“I thought you checked my alibi?” Irritation tightened Pomai’s tone. “I was at the office. My assistant was still with me. We were working. I believe you already verified this.”
“What we verified was that you were indeed, at your office, and that your assistant was also there. But you were not working together, and your door was closed. She never attempted to talk to or contact you while you were inside, and there is an exterior door on the back of your office, which is located right across the street from the Kakela site. It is quite possible for you to have met Mano outside the site. Perhaps you discovered that he had sold the GPR report, and you confronted him. Words were exchanged. Perhaps he threatened you in some way, and he turned his back, and…”
Pomai Magnuson stood up. “Keone, I believe I’ve said all I mean to.”
Chapman dug his card out of his pocket and slapped it down in front of Lei. “If you have any further inquiries, contact me first.”
The two headed for the door.
Neither Lei nor Pono got up to unlock it, and Sophie felt a smile tug her mouth at the sight of Chapman’s reddening face as he tugg
ed at the handle.
“Why don’t you come have a seat,” Lei said gently. “We’re done when I say we’re done.”
The two eventually returned, and Lei leaned forward and pointed her pen at Magnuson. “One of your hairs was found adhered to Seth Mano’s corpse. That hair was stuck in the blood at the back of his head, the only physical evidence at all found with his body. Do you have any idea how that might have happened?”
Pomai’s skin bleached to a sallow, yellowish beige. “I have no idea,” she said faintly. “Oh, my God.”
Chapman turned to her. “No comment needs to be your answer from here on out.”
Pomai covered her mouth with a hand. “I can’t believe he would do that,” she murmured. “That rat bastard.”
“No comment!” yelped Chapman.
“Who? Do what? C’mon, cuz, you gotta tell us. Or we goin’ think you done dis.” Pono’s pidgin, his forward lean, his sympathetic gaze all conspired to crack Pomai’s already-shattered composure—and the woman was scared.
“I made no secret of disliking Mano,” Pomai said slowly. “But I had no motive to kill him—my job was secure, and even if I knew what he was up to, which I suspected, I’m just an employee. But there’s someone who hates him a lot more and has a whole lot at stake—and doesn’t care for me too much, either. I think that person did it, and planted my hair to implicate me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dr. Brett Taggart narrowed his eyes through a pale, undulating stream of smoke from the cigarette dangling from his lip as he opened the door of a run-down, third floor apartment in Lahaina. A ratty shirt and a pair of sweatpants riding low on his narrow hips told a tale of time off. “What’s this about?”