PO Box Honolulu, Hawaii

by Chuck Antone, Jr

  “Yes, we have. Has Leilani told you anything about her?”

  “You mean like she is a duplicate of her?”

  “Yes”

  “She’s already warned me that very few people can tell the two of them apart when they’re together. We’ll be there in about an hour.”

  “Great, we’ll meet you in the main lobby.”

  Kat and I wandered around the few stores that were there, then found a place to sit in the lobby and wait.

  It didn’t take long. Soon Detective Larry Chen and Leilani came walking in, hand and hand, with big smiles on their faces. At the same time, Pualani came over and Chen’s eyes got as big as saucers. But that didn’t stop him from walking over to her and giving her a great big hug, Hawaiian style.

  We chatted for a while and then I asked Leilani, “What’s the news you have for us, Detective Leilani?”

  A big broad grin came over her face. “Yesterday morning a very distinguished looking gentleman came into our hotel. He walked over and looked at the pictures on the wall, but didn’t read any of the information provided for each picture. He just kept looking around as if he was expecting someone. I finally walked over to him and asked if I could be of any assistance. He said he was waiting for one of our guests. When I asked who that was, so I could call to let the guest know he was here, he said, “A Mr. Nick Lang.”

  Leilani went on to say she told him that Nick was no longer registered at the hotel, and thought maybe he could find him here at the Paradise Hotel where we were staying. She said she’d tried a couple of times to get the gentleman’s name, but both times he neglected to answer her questions.

  Pualani asked, “What did he look like?”

  After Leilani described his looks, Pualani got up and walked over to her station at the check in counter. She looked through the files on her computer, wrote something down and came back with a card in her hand. “This may be him. He came here yesterday afternoon and was very cordial. He asked if a Mr. Nick Lang had checked in. I said no, because Mr. Lang had registered as Mr. Nick Davis. When I told him we had a Nick Davis registered, a big grin came over his face and he asked me if there was a room available. It’s slow season right now at the hotel, so I assigned him a room. In fact, it’s in the same building as you.”

  With that, she looked over at Kat and me. “I was going to tell you about him the next time I saw the two of you, then decided to wait as Leilani had told me about all of you coming together today.”

  I asked, “What’s the name on the card you’re holding?”

  “He’s registered under the name of Lance Mann.”

  Chapter 27

  When we finished our conversation, Pualani had to go back to work and Leilani followed her. There was a small table across the room with two chairs. We headed in that direction and on the way I picked up a chair from another table that was empty. The table was away from the entrance of the lobby and more private than where we had all been sitting earlier.

  When all three of us sat down, and got comfortable, Kat asked Larry, “Do you have any news for us about the dates when Lance Mann was on this island?”

  “Yes, in the last three weeks, not counting today, he has come to the Big Island three times.”

  I asked, “What were his dates of arrival and departing?”

  Larry took out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and each date had been highlighted with a yellow highlighter.

  I asked, “Do you have the dates down when Chas Baker and Gary Smith were murdered? I’m wondering if it is at all possible that these dates and those dates could possibly be the same?”

  “Wonder no more. Not only are the dates the same, but also coincide with the murder of Nick Lang’s so-called best friend at the law firm. Mann’s flight reservation confirms that the dates he was on the Big Island correspond with the dates of the three murders.”

  Chapter 28

  After we said our goodbyes, Kat and I went back to our room to review the blackmail case and ponder the motive for the murders. What did Nadia’s fiancé’s best friend tell Nick Lang on the phone? What did he find out about the blackmailer that would cause Nick to lie to Nadia and his employer about why he was going to the Big Island? And what was the information that his friend gave that caused his death?

  The only person alive who could answer those questions was Nick Lang himself.

  As we pondered over these questions, Kat came up with another idea. “Kit, what if there were two different murderers. Maybe either Baker or Smith killed Lang’s friend from the law firm because he found out too much about their involvement in the blackmail of Mrs. Sinclair. After all, we’re pretty sure they were mixed up in the case. But someone else, maybe that third person, did away with the two of them.”

  That made sense to me. We always wondered why Nick Lang would kill his best friend. So we thought that possibly the friend was murdered because he found out something he wasn’t supposed to. And Baker and Smith were murdered because they were blackmailers, and somehow after over thirty years their scheme caught up with them, and they were done away with by that third party.

  This way maybe Nick Lang was most likely innocent of his friend’s death, but he could still be involved in the other two murders. Whatever information his friend gave could have triggered something in Nick to cause a payback time. “You killed my best friend, so now I kill you!”

  We still wanted to find out what his friend told him that would cause Nick to possibly lose his job with people who seemed to really like him, and also lose his fiancée, Nadia, who claimed that he loved her very much. Would he give all of that up to revenge his friend’s death by committing murder?

  Chapter 29

  Kat and I returned to our hotel room and decided it was time to assess exactly where we were in our investigation. First, exactly why were we here? Mrs. Anita Sinclair. She was paying us to discover who had been blackmailing her for the past thirty years.

  Things had then moved on quickly.

  So now we tried to concentrate on a third person. We came to a conclusion that there were two different murderers, as Kat had suggested, and that it was very possible that Chas Baker and Gary Smith killed Nick’s friend from the law firm. We figured perhaps that the third person was the true blackmailer. Maybe he paid Baker a large amount of money every month to retrieve an envelope addressed to the non-existent post office box in Hawaii, and he gave it to Smith who in return gave it somehow to the mystery third person. The more we talked about it, the more feasible it became.

  Perhaps the two wanted more money, and possibly the drop-off point was not directly to the head guy of the crime, but was left in some hidden place. Maybe it was a locker at the bus station, or airport, or maybe even a trash container. It happens in the movies. And when the one who dropped it off was out of sight, the blackmailer retrieved it.

  We were thinking that perchance the two came together out of curiosity, and hid after dropping the envelope off where they wouldn’t be seen. Then, when the culprit collected the money, the two approached him, demanding more cash. After all, they were the ones taking the greater risk of being arrested. It was like a double blackmail situation that might have caused their deaths.

  Maybe the third person agreed and paid more, and over a period of time the two kept demanding more and more payoffs. The third party, whoever it might be, got tired of being threatened so planned a meeting on the Big Island with all three of them, knowing he would be the only who would return.

  Chapter 30

  Since we hadn’t heard from Kalani or Mehana from the Akamai Detective Agency, Kat suggested we should call them. I also had been thinking about them, so I dialed the number hoping they would be able to shed some light on the subject of the blackmail and murders. They had mentioned a friend who worked at the post office, and we were hoping they had found something to help us in our case.

  When a voice answered, I recognized it immediately: it was Kalani. I had my cell on conference so Kat could also hear first hand
. “Hi Kalani, this is Kit and Kat. How are the two of you?”

  “Hi, my friends; how are you guys doing? The two of us are great and we’ve been thinking of you and been meaning to call you these past few days. We have some information for you we found out after talking to our friend Tom who works at the post office. He said Chas Baker was a nice guy, always did his job and got along with everyone. He minded his own business, hardly ever joined the others in the employees’ snack room and when he did, he said very little. Everyone seemed to like him. He never talked about anyone and was always congenial. That’s why my friend said everyone there at the post office was shocked when they heard he’d been murdered. As far as friends, he said Baker had only one they knew of, who stopped by about once a month and they would go out to lunch together. Baker never introduced his friend to anyone at the post office. One day Tom said he asked Baker who his friend was. Baker said, ‘Just someone I’ve known for a long time,’ and that was the end of the conversation.

  “When Chas Baker left the post office he recommended another employee, an Eli Johnson, to take over his job of sorting the mail. But before Eli could take over he was rushed to the hospital with a busted appendix. Ironically, my friend, Tom, is filling in for Johnson now, until he returns. He said just a couple of days ago a letter came to the post office box number that I was questioning him about. Tom said he returned it to the sender with a stamp that said, ‘No such address.’ He said the return address was also a box number.”

  I thanked Kalani for the information and asked if he thought it would be at all possible that he could go to the hospital and talk to Johnson. He said he’d check into it and let us know as soon as he could.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Kalani said. “Tom also told me that about a month and a half ago a woman came into the post office and asked about that same post office box number. When he told her there was no such number she just turned around and walked out. He never saw her again. He was busy at the time and didn’t take much notice of her. His memory is that it was an older woman.”

  Chapter 31

  Kat and I were still thinking about a third party and reconsidered the possibility that it could be a woman. Maybe our thinking had been wrong about thirty years being too long for a woman to blackmail another woman. I emailed our client, Mrs. Sinclair, asking for a couple of names of some of the starlets of long ago that she thought were jealous of her – someone who didn’t make it big in the movies.

  She had mentioned there were some other starlets who were jealous of all the attention she was getting by the studio bigwigs. I also asked her if she had felt at the time that one of them, perhaps by a look or a comment, suspected she might be pregnant.

  She wrote back right away and gave us a couple of names who she thought were overly jealous of her, and all the attention she was getting.

  She also gave us the name of a starlet who made sly remarks such as, “Have you gained some weight? Your stomach looks a little bigger than yesterday!” And other such comments about her figure.

  Then she said the other girls would all break out in laughter. She could only remember her first name, which was a little out of the ordinary … Susannah.

  “Oh, Susannah don’t you cry for me,” Nadia’s words about Nick Lang’s mother came to my mind. “His mother’s name is Susannah, like the song. Never have met a real Susannah before.”

  Kat and I agreed that neither of us had met one before either. The odds were strong that they were one in the same. I mean, how many Susannahs with an h do you know?

  Chapter 32

  We called our friend, Detective Larry Chen, who we were hoping would call his friend, the other Hollywood buff of the 40’s and 50’s movies.

  Even though we didn’t have a last name, we were sure there couldn’t have been too many Susannahs at the studio where Anita Sinclair and the other starlets were under contract.

  We were right. Larry said, “Susannah Webster was her full name, although she just went by Susannah. She made a few movies, mostly walk-ons with a few lines to speak. My friend has seen some of her publicity pictures which were mostly in black and white, and says she was quite beautiful. He commented that she ended up marrying another would-be star whom she met on location. He also had just a few lines, and was used mostly as an extra.”

  Then Larry Chen ended with this question, “Do you want to guess who she married?”

  He didn’t have to tell us. We were sure it was Lance Mann, alias Nicholas Lang, and birth-father of Nick Lang.

  Chapter 33

  Things were becoming a little clearer now about Nick’s adoptive parents. We surmised that Nick’s mother, Susannah, most likely knew about Nick's real parents when he was adopted. Lance Mann probably told her about having an affair with our client, and that she was pregnant and was going to give the baby up for adoption. How much he told her about the situation we didn’t know of course.

  Lance Mann most likely had fallen in love with Susannah, planned on getting married and talked about adopting the baby. They found the doctor who delivered the baby and who was going to handle the adoption, and then paid big bucks to keep him quiet, and almost lived happily ever after.

  Whether Nadia’s fiancé, Nick Lang, knew about this or not while growing up, was still a mystery to us. But we were sure somehow he found out. Maybe that was the news his best friend had found out, telling him that his birth-mother was Anita Sinclair, known in the movie world as Dena Davis. He might have even told him that Lance Mann was his real father and not just his adoptive father. He could have even told him about the blackmail, and how for over thirty years his real mother had been paying a large sum of money to Chas Baker and Gary Smith to keep everything quiet.

  We were thinking that perchance Nick felt guilty that he was the cause of his birth-mother’s misery all of these years. Perhaps Nick told Lance Mann he knew he was his real dad, and both of them took the situation into their own hands – and their plans might have included murder. It was also very possible that Nick Lang, Nadia’s fiancé, might have got in touch with Mrs. Anita Sinclair and sent her a picture of himself. And that was why she was so upset with us when we sent her a picture of him, knowing he was the baby she had given away at birth. And that could be the reason she told us if we continued to pursue him, she would take us off the case.

  As we were talking, Kat was writing all this down as quickly as she could. We’ve learned when we start speaking off the top of our heads that by the next day we’ve forgotten some of the key ideas we had. Then we’d remember them days, or sometimes weeks later. This way, having our thoughts on paper, we can go over them many times. Some ideas we throw out as nonsense, but so many times some of them have helped us solve our cases.

  After a while our brains needed a rest, so we went to the coffee shop at the hotel to sit and relax. The place was crowded and there was only one table left. Many customers were standing, talking and drinking coffee or drinks. We moved over quickly to reserve the table before anyone else could take it. The table was in a great spot. Not too many could see us, plus we had a view of the whole café.

  It was fun and very relaxing. It was a bar and coffee shop with quiet music playing and dim lights; very peaceful, even though the place was busy. But soon something disturbed our peace. We both noticed him at the same time. It was Nick Lang. He wasn’t alone, but sitting across from a very attractive woman, and in deep conversation.

  Kat said, “I wonder who she is. It sure isn’t Nadia, his fiancée. But look at her, Kit. She looks kind of familiar, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe, Kat, but who do we know here that he could be talking to? We know very few people at the hotel. Our minds must be getting overactive.” I smiled as I said that. It was kind of a tongue in cheek comment.

  “No, Kit, I know her. I’m going to get up and head over to the bathroom. Going over that way I can pass right by their table.”

  Kat got up and nonchalantly walked right past them, but she returned by a different route.

/>   “Okay, Kat, don’t keep me in suspense any longer, who is she?”

  She whispered, “Its Detective Sally Ann.”

  Chapter 34

  When we returned to our room the hotel phone was flashing. There was a message from Kalani to call him back as soon as we returned. Neither of us had taken our cell phones as we were not expecting a call, and had left them on charge.

  I called Kalani and he told me he’d been able to visit Eli Johnson in the hospital. He’d asked him why Chas Baker recommended him to take over his job of sorting the mail at the post office. Eli said Baker always seemed to enjoy his job and he thought that some day he would like to have it. He also asked Baker to recommend him. Baker said he would if he did him a big favor, with no questions asked.

  Johnson agreed. The favor was that when an envelope came addressed to the box number we now know never existed, he was to return it to the sender with a note on the envelope saying, “NO NEED TO SEND ANY MORE. WE ARE THROUGH…THANKS!”

  Eli Johnson said he started to ask what it was all about, but before the words came out of his mouth Chas Baker reminded him, “Remember, no questions asked.”

  He said he thought it was some kind of a joke, so he went along with it. Baker also told him to tell no one, and if he did he would deny it. And since everyone liked him, they wouldn’t believe Johnson, and he would probably lose his job for interfering with the mail.

  I thanked Kalani and turned to Kat. “I guess our blackmailing job has just ended. I’ll send Mrs. Sinclair an email to let her know that our services are no longer needed. I’ll also tell her that her last payoff was sent back and she no longer has to worry about being blackmailed.”