by Toby Neal
“The initial set up and staffing, yeah. Why I could use help. With just me, it’s taking longer. You could put in that nanny cam A.I. program a lot faster than I can, for starters.”
The ocean glittered turquoise and cobalt, ruffled by the ever-present breeze. Just beyond the edge of the yard, the beach stretched away, peopled by only a few visitors. Sophie turned to look at the mansion beside them.
Aki Long’s mansion was completely different, done in a modern minimalist style of intersecting blocky shapes in cream-colored stucco. A thick ti leaf hedge with wire embedded on the inside encircled it. On impulse Sophie walked out onto the beach and headed to the right.
“Sophie! Where are you going?”
“Just saying hi to our neighbor.” Sophie headed for the estate’s gate, a gap in the tall ornamental hedge. She knocked on the metal gate, loudly.
Aki Long tugged a logo-decorated golf shirt down over a paunch of belly and ran a hand through thinning salt-and-pepper hair as he came down off a wide white stone porch to speak to her. He was not happy to see her, judging by the way his brows drew together. “Ms. Ang. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?”
“I was just in the neighborhood.” Sophie tried an engaging smile. “We are putting together a security package for your neighbor, and I was surprised to see that your home is in this area.” She made an arm gesture that encompassed the expensive real estate all around them.
“Being a CPA pays rather well,” Long said acidly. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
Sophie kept up the smile. “Of course. Have you had any security concerns? As we put together our services for your neighbor, it would be a big help to know what kinds of measures have worked for you.”
Sophie could almost hear the man thinking, though his blocky face was expressionless. Should he invite her in, play the host, or would it be better to stonewall her?
“That information is private and confidential,” Long said, with a chilly smile. “How good would my security be if I went around giving out my personal information to anyone who asks?”
Stonewalling it was, then.
Sophie inclined her head. “Well, thanks anyway. It was nice to see you again, Mr. Long.”
“Certainly hope you are able to stop those thieves at the Kakela site,” Long said. “I’m sure you’re doing the best you can.”
His tone told her he believed the opposite to be true.
Jake stood in the sand watching the exchange, his hands on his hips, but his brows were drawn together as she returned. “What was that about?”
“Nothing. Just thought I’d say hi to the Hui’s board treasurer—he’s your next-door neighbor.”
“Small island,” Jake said. “Follow me and I’ll show you the cottage. There are separate bedrooms and everything.”
The cottage was small and well-appointed, and it did look like they would have enough privacy to function. On their way back, Antigua brought out a plate of delicious shrimp puffs and melon and prosciutto. “Jake tells me you need a little persuading to take the job. Let me lure you with snacks,” the woman said, her teeth gleaming like pearls.
“I do love good cuisine.” Sophie loaded up a napkin and popped a bite into her mouth. “Thank you. You are very kind.”
Jake filled a big palm with the shrimp puffs. He tossed one into the air and caught it in his mouth. “You make me into a trained seal, Antigua. I’ll do anything for your cooking.”
Antigua smiled at Sophie. “Does he ever settle down?”
“Not that I know of,” Sophie said. “I think he’s twelve going on…what is it, Jake? Thirteen?”
“Hey! Sophie made a joke!” Jake clapped her on the back and she staggered. “Antigua, my friend here is frighteningly smart—and literal. I am honored to have provoked her first known attempt at humor.”
“English is my second language,” Sophie told Antigua. “I’m American and Thai, and I grew up there.” She glanced at her phone. “Speaking of friends, I am on my way to share dinner with another friend and her family. I must be going.”
Antigua insisted on wrapping up some of the appetizers to take with her, “As a pupu. Never arrive empty-handed in Hawaii!”
Jake walked her back to the cars. “I think this is going to be fun.” His gray eyes were sincere.
“It’s certainly a more luxurious setting than my current one,” Sophie agreed. “See you soon.”
After Jake let her out of the estate, Sophie drove her rental car out to Lei and Stevens’s compound in Haiku on the east shore of Maui. She yawned—that early morning nap she’d taken hadn’t done much to restore her energy.
The Kakela site was being watched during the day by a Hui employee, but she’d be an hour or so late getting to her surveillance shift with the visit to her friends’ house for dinner—not likely to be a problem now that the thief knew the property was lighted and alarmed.
Sophie’s phone rang on the seat beside her. She picked up after checking the caller ID. “Hello, Dr. Taggart.”
“Geez, woman, are you always so formal?”
“Hey there, Brett.” Sophie hit the speaker feature and set the phone down in the drink holder. “Maui has a cell phone ban, so I have you on speaker.”
“Anyone else in the car?”
“No, why?”
“Because I’m paranoid about being caught telling one of my bad archaeology jokes. Here it goes: if you’re an archaeologist, does that mean your life is in ruins?”
“I don’t know.” Sophie frowned. “I suppose most of it would be spent excavating.”
“Never mind.” Taggart cleared his throat. “I called with some fairly big news. The Hui has received an offer to buy the site from a private company.”
Sophie was still puzzling over his question. “I don’t see what’s funny about what you said. Archaeologists deal with ruins all the time.”
“It’s stupid. A dumb joke. Never mind, please let’s forget it.”
“No. I grew up outside the U.S. A lot of colloquialisms are opaque to me.”
“See, that’s it. Colloquialisms are opaque.” Taggart snorted a laugh. “Okay. The phrase “life in ruins” means things are going bad in your life—it’s a train wreck. Things are falling apart. You’re going to the dogs.”
“Going to the dogs?”
“Oh please, please forget it and let’s move on. Did you hear my news?”
“About the private offer to buy Kakela? What is the significance?” Sophie navigated a traffic light outside of Kahului and turned onto the Hana Highway. Fields of waving green sugarcane bordered the roads, the late afternoon sun gleaming on their sword like leaves. The expanse of open space gave a sense of a green ocean, rippling with wind and leading the eye up the mauve and taupe expanse of Haleakala volcano, wreathed in clouds.
“How much longer do you have on your security contract? For the Hui?”
“It was for two weeks to begin with. I have eight more days.”
“Well, a major Hawaii real estate investment firm has made an offer to buy the Kakela site from the Hui. It’s a big deal because the offer is significant, and the board is considering it.” Taggart named a figure that made Sophie’s eyes widen.
“But what about the cultural significance of the site to the whole community, and the state?” Sophie tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as the rental approached the coast. A wind-whipped expanse of waves and cliffs opened up on her left.
“That’s a thing, but the party making the offer has included a proposal to excavate the site to the highest standards and to restore it as part of the offer. They want to create a cultural tourist attraction that earns its keep in entrance fees.”
Sophie considered this. “What are the negative aspects?”
“You mean the downside?”
“If you want to put it that way. You like colloquialisms.”
“Take to ’em like a pig to mud. Honestly, if this offer is sincere, I can’t think of one. Other than the Hui losing control of
the site, and it being in private hands. I don’t honestly care about that one way or the other, as long as the site is properly excavated and restored…and they use my firm to do the work.” Taggart gave a dry chuckle. “I’ll keep you posted.” He ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, Sophie pulled up at the high wooden gate that enclosed Lei and Stevens’s property. She pushed the button on the keypad beside the gate. “Hey there. It’s Sophie.”
“Sophie! Glad you could make it.” Stevens, Lei’s husband, had a mellow baritone voice rendered hollow by the intercom. The gate retracted on its wheeled axis, and Sophie drove forward, up the curving driveway past the orange and lemon trees and Lei’s father Wayne’s cottage. She drew up and parked in front of the sturdy wooden plantation style home that Lei and Stevens had purchased with Lei’s inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.
Her friend met her at the door of the cottage, their son Kiet on one hip. The baby was astonishingly good-looking. Dark green eyes framed by long, thick lashes, a full head of curly black hair, and pale mocha skin marked his mixed heritage. Kiet’s striking looks struck a chord in Sophie. Mixed heritage was both beautiful and challenging to live with, as she knew firsthand—but Hawaii was one of the best places in the United States in which to be a person of color. She was just another drop in the sea of races that made their home in the Islands.
Kiet reached dimpled hands toward Sophie, burbling something adorable.
Sophie took the baby in her arms. “He just said ‘Auntie Sophie.’ Could he be any more beautiful?”
Lei laughed. “Don’t really think so. He’s an exceptionally cute baby, and he knows it.”
Stevens pushed the front door wide, coming out to join them on the front porch. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes! Your face looks wonderful, Sophie. So good to see you and glad you’re okay.”
Sophie felt the quick sting of tears as the tall, rangy, blue-eyed man she had come to think of as a brother embraced her, along with the baby.
“Thanks. It’s nice of you to say so, but that scar…”
“Just adds character,” Stevens said. “If anything, you look a little dangerous. And sexy.” He wiggled his brows.
Lei punched him in the arm. “Hey, I’m right here!”
Stevens winced theatrically. “Like you would let me forget it.”
Bickering playfully, the two went into the house. Sophie followed more slowly, the baby on her hip, pausing to greet Keiki, Lei’s well-mannered Rottweiler, leaning Kiet down so he could tug on the dignified dog’s ears, babbling the while.
Looking around the humble, well-worn living room, Sophie felt a painful tightness in her chest.
This.
This was something she wanted.
A home. A child. A man to joke with, laugh with, and kiss…as Lei and Stevens were doing in the kitchen, their passion for each other seemingly undiluted by marriage and parenthood.
Dinner was casual and noisy as Jared, Stevens’s firefighter brother, a recent transplant from California, joined them at the picnic table in the dining room along with Lei’s father, Wayne. Shoyu chicken, rice, a big salad, and Antigua’s pupu were enhanced by beer, and provided a simple and delicious meal. Sophie took it all in, even exchanging flirtatious comments with Jared.
Jared was just as physically riveting as his brother. Short dark hair set off a face more handsome than Stevens’s rugged one, but his blue eyes were the same crystal color. He had asked Sophie out in the past, and she had refused on the grounds that along-distance relationship was too difficult to maintain—but there was no denying the man’s attractiveness. A firefighter who enjoyed ocean sports, Jared was obviously enjoying life on Maui as he told stories of his various adventures.
Wayne doted on the baby and fed him in his highchair. Wayne’s silver-shot, curly black hair, craggy features, and many tattoos gave him a rakish look at odds with the tender manner in which he cared for the child. Watching that made Sophie miss her father, Frank Smithson. The most nurturing person in her life, her ambassador father traveled a lot, but when he was home, he’d always lavished her with his full attention, as if to make up for her mother’s emotional absence.
Pim Wat Smithson’s chronic depression had kept her from being much more than a nominal parent. Sophie’s nannies had tried, but no one had filled the longing in her heart to be close to her mother, a longing that had led to her agreement to a disastrous early arranged marriage to much older businessman Assan Ang—a relationship that had nearly cost her life.
Jared touched her arm. “You keep making googly eyes at that baby, and I’ll start to think you’re in the market for one.”
Sophie smiled. “I would not be averse, were the situation to be right.”
“You sure you want to keep turning me down, then?” The teasing light in Jared’s eyes made Sophie laugh. “I’m not averse, either.”
“Sorry. I’m dating someone.” Sophie felt a blush heat her neck. Marcella would know how to turn his jokes back on him, but Sophie just verbally stumbled and stuttered.
“Oh, ho! Who is the lucky gentleman?” Stevens asked.
“Someone I work with on Oahu.” Sophie found herself reluctant to talk or joke about Connor—the relationship was so new and so complex that it wasn’t the sort of thing she wanted bandied about. Lei gave her a wink as she fetched the baby’s sippy cup.
The evening passed pleasantly, and all too soon she was saying her goodbyes. Out on the porch she embraced her friend. “I’m so happy for you and your family. I hope I have something half as happy as you do, someday.”
“You will.” Lei cupped Sophie’s damaged cheek gently. “It really is healing well.” The touch felt good on Sophie’s numb-but-tingly skin. She wondered when the graft would stop feeling so strange—the doctor had said it could take months for the nerves to begin to fire correctly.
“I’m so glad you came,” Lei said. “I never expected this to be my life, either, and I’m grateful. I hope I see a lot more of you while you’re here on Maui.”
Sophie had wrapped up the evening early with Lei and her family in order to get back to the Kakela site, but it was fully dark when she arrived. The grounds appeared secure as Sophie trudged to the trailer, fighting the familiar black fog of depression. She hung her backpack on the wall inside the door.
The contrast of her current life with Lei’s rich one could not have been greater.
Moving on autopilot, she went through her work shift start routine: booting up the surveillance equipment, checking the monitors, and a walk around the grounds to make sure everything was secure and undisturbed.
She mulled over the evening’s social events as she walked around the deserted site. Warm wind, scented with mangoes and plumeria, teased her nostrils as she swung the heavy flashlight back and forth, not really needed as the sensor lights burst on with her movement. Nothing appeared to be out of place until she reached the corner where the dig areas were covered with plywood.
One of the pieces of plywood was out of alignment. Likely someone from the Hui had moved it to show someone the dig area.
As Sophie tugged the wood back into place, she spotted a flash of color inside the deep, straight-sided rectangular excavation that Taggart had called a “test unit.” She pushed the plywood back, shone her flashlight into the pit, and gasped.
Chapter Six
A man’s body lay in the bottom of the perfectly rectangular hole, curled on its side. The means of death was clearly visible: the back of the man’s head was virtually gone where it had been bashed in.
Sophie squatted and shone her light over the body, taking in the details. He wore an Aloha shirt and chinos, Hawaii business casual, and a pair of tan boat shoes. The victim’s complexion was the olive-brown of mixed Hawaiian race. Height seemed around five foot ten, sturdy build. His black hair had silver at the temples—not that much was visible with the amount of blood that stained it.
She played the light over his face again: she’d only met the man once, but
she was pretty sure this was Seth Mano, president of the Hui to Restore Kakela’s board.
Sophie slid her cell phone out of her pocket and called her friend. “Lei, we have a big problem here at Kakela.”
Sophie stood back from the crime scene, her arms folded on her chest, as Lei climbed down into the hole with The University of Hawaii crime scene intern she was working with at Kahului station.
Once again, as she watched the team, she wondered about her decision to leave the FBI. It was almost painful to be sidelined from her own case just as it escalated in stakes and importance.
“Sophie!” Lei’s voice summoned her to the edge of the pit. It was five feet down, so the top of Lei’s curly head was just above the edge. “Did you look for the original crime scene on the grounds?”
“No. It occurred to me that he might’ve been killed here, but I called you first, then 911. I stayed by the body so as not to disturb any possible evidence more than I already had.”
“Good.” Lei turned to the two officers who had arrived in response to Sophie’s call. “Do a sweep of the grounds and look for any signs of disturbance.”
“I made it halfway around the left side of the enclosure,” Sophie told the officers. That part is clear.” The two nodded and set off, their flashlights swinging, even though Sophie had turned on all the lights and the field was lit up as if for a game.
“Glad Captain Omura was okay with giving me the case since I was already familiar with the surveillance going on out here. How did this body get in here when you had monitoring set up for the site? Don’t you have cameras on it?” Lei didn’t sound accusing, just puzzled as she studied the body.
“The Hui has a staffer keep an eye on the site during the day while I sleep and they don’t use the monitors in broad daylight. I turn the cameras on when I come in.” Sophie’s belly tightened at the conversations she knew were ahead about her surveillance plan, which, in hindsight, had holes in it. “I knew there would be about an hour between when that person, a clerk named Fran, went home and when I came on, since I was having dinner at your house.” Sophie found herself rubbing the skin graft on her face and put her hand in her pocket. “I am so upset that I didn’t take this more seriously, but we were guarding against theft, not murder!”