by Kathi Daley
“I really don’t like this.”
“I’m doing it whether you like it or not.”
Shredder groaned. “If you make the cut after tomorrow’s qualifying heats we’ll meet Saturday, before the competition.”
“Okay. When and where?”
“Six a.m. at Turtle Cove. We’ll meet on the south end of the cove, near the entrance to the sea cave. Come alone. And Lani, if you love Luke you’ll leave him out of this. Anyone who gets involved is going to be putting themselves in danger.”
“I’ll come alone.” I stiffened my spine and agreed to Shredder’s condition.
Chapter 10
Saturday, March 25
When I’d first insisted on helping Shredder investigate the smuggling ring I’d thought qualifying for the tournament would be a cinch. It wasn’t. Although I’d been surfing almost since before I could walk, the competition for the few spots saved for local unseeded entrants had been fierce. I’d had to give it 110 percent to even make it into the top ten, and when they announced they would be cutting that down to five before the end of the day, I’d almost given up completely. Somehow I managed to dig down deep and surf better than I ever had in my life. By the time the day was over I was completely exhausted, but I had a spot in the completion, which would begin midmorning on Saturday.
I’d decided to sleep at my condo last night. For one thing, I was so exhausted that I figured I’d fall asleep the moment I got home, and for another, Shredder’s insistence that I not tell Luke what I was doing left me feeling awkward and unsure when we were together. He was busy taking care of Lucifer and I had to get up early to meet Shredder, so I called Luke on Friday night to tell him I wasn’t feeling that well and would catch up with him the following evening.
I glanced at my watch as I sat on a rock and looked out over the sea. Shredder was late. He’d said to meet him at six and it was now six-fifteen. I’d noticed he wasn’t home when I’d arrived at my condo last night and his car hadn’t been in the lot when I’d left that morning, so I had no way to know where he’d been hanging out since we’d spoken. I tried calling him, but the call went directly to voice mail, so I texted him and then tried to quell my irritation at his tardiness. I’d thought a lot about who Shredder really was and why he needed to maintain such an incredible level of secrecy since we’d been together on Thursday evening. Although I didn’t see why he’d have reason to lie to me, and he really hadn’t told me anything, I still had the feeling that something about his story was off. If Kensington was on the island to track down a smuggling ring chances were he was with Interpol. Unless, of course, I was correct and the gems were being exchanged for information, in which case the CIA could be involved. Shredder seemed to know the man fairly well, so it seemed obvious to me that he was, or had been, an international operative of some sort. I supposed that explained a lot about the intensity with which he guarded his privacy, but I still had a hard time picturing the casual, laid-back man I knew as ever having a job that required him to show up in a suit and tie every day.
I glanced at my watch again. Six twenty-five. If Shredder didn’t show up soon I was going to have to leave in order to arrive at the contestant registration booth on time. Yeah, I had over an hour before I needed to sign in, but I found I was nervous about both my role as a spy and my role as a competitor in my very first professional surfing contest.
The waiting was killing me.
I got up from my position on the rock and began to pace back and forth. I needed to think about something else while I waited if I didn’t want to go completely insane, so I went over everything I’d been worrying about in my head once again.
First there was Komo, and the fact that he still hadn’t shown up. If Whitmore had been fencing stolen gems, as I suspected, the person who’d killed him most likely would be associated with the smuggling operation. If that were true, why would he target Komo as the fall guy? Komo certainly didn’t have anything to do with international smuggling and espionage, so in my mind his involvement at any level didn’t make sense. Sure he’d been vocal about his dislike of Whitmore, but a lot of the truck vendors had felt the same way. I didn’t see why Komo would stand out more than any of the others, though, thinking back on my conversations with Kekoa, when I’d said that if I were going to frame someone I’d choose a person who didn’t relate back to me in any way, I realized Komo was the perfect choice. Everyone knew he had a beef with the guy, and looking into his actions and motives would in no way point back to the smuggling ring.
And then there was the bloody knife found in Komo’s trunk. I’d never gotten back with Jason about the identity of the person whose blood was on the knife, but when I stopped to think about it I knew the blood couldn’t have been Whitmore’s. If he’d had an oozing, bloody wound when he entered the water, the sharks would have found him a lot sooner than they had. The only thing that made sense was that Whitmore had been placed in the water free of wounds only to be cut up by the coral, as we’d discussed at the scene on the morning I’d found the arm. When the flesh was cut blood would enter the water, alerting any nearby predators. Once one shark started to party it was inevitable that his buddies would want to join in.
The other thing that swayed me against Komo as the killer was the timing of his disappearance. If he had been the one to kill Whitmore why had he gone to work on the day of the murder only to disappear the next? If you killed a man and planned to disappear because of it wouldn’t you do it right away? I suppose someone could have tipped Komo off that he was a suspect and wanted for questioning. It was also possible Komo hadn’t disappeared of his own free will. I hated to even consider that possibility, but Luke had had a good point when he’d said Komo could have been the murderer’s second victim.
Another glance at my watch: 6:32. I’d give Shredder five more minutes and then I was out of there.
The other thing that had been on my mind quite a lot the past couple of days was Tommy and my mother’s absolute determination to become his foster mother. I could see Mom was bonding with the child, which would be fine except she still hadn’t told my dad about him. I wasn’t sure how thrilled he would be about doing the whole childrearing thing after so many years, and I suspected that was why Mom was procrastinating about having the conversation that was already two days’ late.
As of the last time I’d spoken to my mom, the woman from social services was still working on unraveling Tommy’s identity and who was legally responsible for him. There was a chance whoever that was would have other plans for him altogether.
Although my watch informed me that it was now 6:41, I decided to wait another five minutes, mostly because I still had plenty of time to get to the competition and it seemed silly to go home and risk waking everyone up for such a short amount of time.
When I wasn’t worrying about Komo or Tommy I was worrying about Luke. The poor guy had a lot on his plate right now with a sick horse and a potential intruder on the ranch. He was pretty sure that if someone had broken into his office something would have been taken. I could tell he was still disturbed about the fact that someone might have broken into the house, although he was trying to downplay his concern, most likely so I wouldn’t worry. While there wasn’t any verifiable proof that there’d been a break-in my intuition told me it had happened. And if nothing had been taken whoever had been in the house had been looking for something specific. Maybe they’d made a copy of something on his computer or in his file cabinet.
I’d just checked my watch and seen it was seven o’clock when I received a text from Shredder, letting me know he’d been held up and would meet me at the competition. Wonderful. I’d gotten up an hour early for nothing.
Now that I was on my way to the competition I found the focus of my worry segued to the role I was to play in Shredder’s investigation. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to do. I guess I’d hoped Shredder would lay out a plan at our meeting, which he’d apparently been too busy to attend. What could he possibly have been doin
g that was more important than this? I tried calling him to find out where exactly he wanted to meet, but he didn’t answer his phone. The beach where the competition was being held would be packed. It was going to be hard to locate a specific person unless a meeting place had been prearranged.
There was already a long line at the registration table when I arrived, so I fell in behind a woman I recognized from surfing magazines. It suddenly hit me how far out of my league I was. Of course my main reason for being here was to track down international thieves and not to win the competition. Still, I didn’t want to look bad in front of the huge crowd of people who had gathered to watch.
I looked around at the crowd but still didn’t see Shredder. He’d better get there soon or he’d miss registering for his own spot in the competition. I frowned. It suddenly occurred to me that Shredder hadn’t attended the qualifying rounds the previous day. It hadn’t seemed odd to me at the time, but I was sure he wasn’t ranked, so he’d need to qualify. Perhaps the agency he worked for had secured him a spot in the competition without his having to go through the exercise of qualifying.
“Name?” the woman at the table I had finally worked my way up to asked.
“Kailani Pope.”
She found my name and put a check mark next to it. “Here’s your contestant packet.” She handed me a dark blue canvas bag. “Everything you need is inside. All contestants must be gathered near the grandstand at nine o’clock. Next.”
I took my bag and headed toward my Jeep. I hadn’t brought my board and bag with me while I waited in line, so I needed to retrieve everything I’d need. I had a little bit of time, so I slid into the driver’s seat and looked over the information in the packet. Where was Shredder? He really should be here by now.
Once I’d looked everything over, I got my stuff and headed toward the changing tent that had been set up for contestants. I found a spot to set down my belongings and then looked around for the man with the long blond hair who had to be here by now.
“Is that Lani Pope?”
I turned to see an old crush, professional surfer Kilohana Kapole behind me. “Kilo! I didn’t know you were entered in this competition.”
“I was a last-minute addition. I wasn’t going to come at first, but then I decided it would be nice to have a reason to come home for a few days. Are you entered?”
“I’m one of the five local qualifiers.”
“That’s awesome. Are the others here?”
“No. Not yet.” I wasn’t sure how to explain to the man I’d once fantasized about marrying that I hadn’t told anyone what I was doing today. I guess I could have told Luke and my friends that I’d entered the competition, but I was afraid mentioning it to anyone would lead to questions I was unable to answer. “You must be the favorite in a competition like this.”
“I’ll win. I need to go find my girlfriend, but maybe we can catch up later.”
“I’d like that.”
There’d been a time I was crushed by the constant parade of women Kilo seemed to have moving through his life, but now I had Luke, so Kilo’s women didn’t faze me in the least.
Shredder still hadn’t arrived by the time we were all supposed to be gathered in front of the grandstand. By this point I was beginning to get worried. Had something happened to him? He’d been part of an investigation involving some pretty bad people if what he’d told me was true. Maybe he’d asked the wrong questions of the wrong person. I’d left my phone in my bag back in the tent, but as soon as we were done with the opening ceremonies I’d head back there to try to get hold of him.
As we were being introduced, I found myself becoming caught up in the hype. Suddenly I wished I’d tried harder to figure out a way to invite Luke, Cam, and Kekoa here without telling them what I was doing. I still wasn’t sure how I’d managed to qualify; surfers who were, in my own opinion, much better than me had been cut. One thing was for sure: I most likely wouldn’t have another opportunity to participate in a competition like this, and it made me sad that no one was there to cheer me on.
Once the opening ceremonies were over the first round of surfers, of which I was a part, were asked to gather at the landing area. The phone call to Shredder would have to wait. I hurried to the tent to grab my board and then back down to the beach. I noticed that most of the contestants on the pro circuit had multiple boards and people to carry them. Given the huge crowd, tracking down the individuals involved in the smuggling operation was going to be a nearly impossible task. Again, I had to wonder of Shredder had had a plan in mind or if he’d simply been going to show up and wing it.
*****
I actually did a respectable job during my first round. I still hadn’t seen Shredder and had no idea what it was I was supposed to do next, so I made my way back to the tent and grabbed my phone. There was a text from Shredder saying that he wasn’t going to make it but I should just enjoy the day and text him if I happened to overhear anything.
Huh? Text him? Wasn’t him being here the whole point of my being here?
Now what should I do? I supposed I could call Kekoa, who was at work, and ask her to put me in touch with Kensington. She’d wonder why I wanted to speak with him, but I figured if Shredder and Kensington were working together he might know how to get hold of the blond surfer who I was going to kill the next time I saw him. I felt bad that Luke was missing my big moment and had all but decided to call him when my mom called.
“Hey, Mom,” I answered.
“Hi, honey. I know you’re at work, but I hoped you had a moment to chat.”
“I just happen to be on a break. What’s up?”
“I finally called your father this morning and told him about Tommy. I wanted to let you know right away that he’s fine with helping the boy. In fact, he’s coming home today to help me figure things out. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“It really is.” I had to admit I was relieved.
“I knew you’d want to know right away that things were going to work out. And I knew you’d want to know your father spoke to Komo this week. I know you were worried he hadn’t been around.”
“He spoke to him? Where?”
“On Maui. Dad went to lunch with your brother at the Grand Wailea Resort and they ran into him there. It seems someone paid for him to have an all-expenses-paid trip. He said it was a total surprise. Isn’t that nice?”
I frowned. “Yeah. Nice. Did he say who paid for the trip?”
“Actually, it was your friend Shredder.”
I barely had time to react to the fact that Shredder had not only known where Komo was the entire time but had arranged for him to be off the island before my group was being called to gather for our next heat. Shredder knew Komo was wanted for questioning; he knew how concerned I was about his disappearance. Why hadn’t he said anything? More importantly, what in the heck was going on?
Every contestant participated in three heats before any eliminations were made. I was supposed to be here to look for an international jewel thief, but at this point I’d pretty much decided to drop out of the competition in favor of hunting down Shredder and strangling his scrawny neck. But I decided to call Jason before I did anything else. I figured he’d be interested in knowing exactly where Komo was and who was responsible for sending him there.
“Hey, sis, what’s up?” Jason asked when he picked up his phone.
“I just spoke to Mom and it turns out Dad ran into Komo on Maui. I thought you’d want to know.”
My statement was met with complete silence.
“You knew all along,” I accused him. I wasn’t sure how I knew that to be true, but I did. When Jason didn’t respond I added, “Why would you pretend to be looking for Komo when you knew where he was all along?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Complicated how?” I demanded, a bit too loudly considering I was in a public place.
“I need to go. I’ll call you later to explain everything.”
Jason hung up immediately. I tried c
alling him back, but my call went straight to voice mail.
“Something wrong?” Kilo sat down next to me.
“That was my brother Jason. He always makes me nuts. How did your heat go?”
“Awesome. I caught yours too. Your technique has really improved since the last time we hung ten together.”
“Thanks. I’m not a serious surfer like you are, but I do try to improve my skills. I doubt I’ll make it out of the first round, but I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to compete.”
“I noticed you’ve been hanging out on your own. Didn’t any of your friends come to cheer you on?”
“Cam and Kekoa had to work.”
“How about that cowboy of yours?”
“He’s got a sick horse.”
“That’s too bad. I gotta get going, but maybe we can hang later.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
There was a time I would have felt like I’d been to the moon and back if Kilo had asked me to hang out with him, but today wasn’t that time. Today all I wanted to do was finish my round and then track down the men in my life who, I suddenly realized, had most likely been working together against me. If I had to guess, both Shredder and Jason had sent me on wild-goose chases in a lame attempt to protect me from whatever was really going on. It looked like their plan had worked. I’d spent the first part of the week trying to find a man who didn’t need finding and the past two days first qualifying for and then competing in a contest that, I was willing to bet, had no connection in the least to an international smuggling ring.
Chapter 11
Once I realized I had most likely been duped my enthusiasm for the competition faded. I tracked down one of the event organizers and told them I had a family emergency and would need to remove myself from the competition. Then I gathered my things and headed back to my Jeep. My first instinct had been to track down and massacre both Jason and Shredder, but I’d had time to think things through and realized they weren’t likely accomplices, which meant if they’d been working together to keep me distracted, I could be certain something big was going on. The question was what?