by Daley, Kathi
Luke paused and then said, “That does seem odd. You’d think every aspect of the contest would be monitored to prevent people from cheating.”
“Can it be possible they don’t care about that? Either things must be set up in such a way that cheating isn’t an issue or they see it as part of the strategy. I guess once the event gets back underway tomorrow I’ll get a better feel for things. Are you still planning on being here on Monday?”
“Yes. I would have come sooner, but my mom has some sort of a get-together planned for tomorrow. I’m flying directly into Kahului, so I should be at the resort by around one-thirty. You’ll probably be out for the day, but we’ll meet up as soon as you get back there. You can bring me up to speed and hopefully I can help the rest of the week.”
“Do you have everything covered back at the ranch?”
Luke owned a horse ranch on Oahu. He’d hired temporary help to keep an eye on things while we were on vacation in Ashton Falls and he’d asked them to stay on while he was in Texas.
“Yeah. I have coverage for as long as I need it.”
“Great. The more minds we throw at this the better. The awards ceremony is Sunday, which means we only have a week to figure out what’s going on, and who, if anyone, is responsible for Cammy’s death. I figure once everyone disperses it will be close to impossible to find the truth.”
“Will the contestants who are eliminated leave immediately?” Luke asked.
“No. They want everyone here for the awards ceremony on Sunday, so everyone will continue to be put up at the resort for the entire week.”
Luke didn’t respond. I assumed he was thinking about everything I’d told him. I bet he found this contest as suspect as I did.
“So, how’s your sister and your niece?” I asked after a brief pause of my own.
“Much better. My sister has been released from the hospital and the doctor thinks Kayla will be able to go home in a day or two. It was touch and go for a while, but I think everything will be fine.”
“I’m so glad everything worked out. I’m sure it must have been terrifying for your family.”
Luke let out a long sigh. “It was pretty bad. I saw my mom age ten years in front of my eyes when the doctor wasn’t certain if either my sister or the baby were going to pull through. I’m afraid it would have killed her if things had turned out differently. And my poor brother-in-law. I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind.”
I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what there was to say. Luke’s family had been through a terrifying experience.
I could hear someone speaking to him in the background. I knew he was staying with his parents, so he probably didn’t have a lot of privacy.
“I gotta go,” Luke said to me. “I’ll try to call you back this evening.”
“Okay. I love you.”
Luke lowered his voice. “I love you too.”
As I hung up, I tried to decide whether I should care that Luke obviously hadn’t wanted whoever was in the room with him to hear him say he loved me. He might not have wanted to open that particular can of worms given the current circumstances, but I still felt somewhat wounded that he obviously hadn’t informed his family that we were … I hesitated. We were what? I couldn’t finish that sentence and it was only me talking quietly with myself in the privacy of my own head. Luke and I cared about each other, but due at least in part to my skittish feelings on the subject, we’d never discussed exactly what that meant.
I glanced at the waves breaking in the distance. I was a better person for having Luke in my life and he’d told me he loved me on many occasions, but I wondered if he thought of us in terms of permanence. There had been times when we’d joked about having a story to tell our grandkids, but did that mean Luke planned on us someday marrying and having children and grandchildren, or was that just the kind of thing people said without taking them seriously? I supposed I should be happy Luke hadn’t brought up the subject of permanence and the commitment that came with it. Honestly, if Luke asked me to marry him, I had no idea what I’d say.
Oh, well. This was no time for introspection. Zak and Zoe would be here soon and I needed to get ready to bring them up to speed.
Chapter 2
Luke and I had met Zoe and Zak Zimmerman after I stumbled across a dead body floating in the lake while vacationing in their hometown of Ashton Falls and Zoe and I had worked together to find the killer. Like me, Zoe is petite yet extremely strong and athletic. She has blue eyes and long curly hair that seems to have a mind of its own yet totally works for her. She owns a wild and domestic animal rescue and rehabilitation shelter and is married to the computer software guru who’ll be my teammate. Zoe and I met by chance, but we bonded almost immediately. It seemed we had a lot in common, including our propensity to becoming involved in everything even remotely interesting going on around us. Like Luke, Zak is a patient man. He seems willing to take a supporting role as she steamrolls through life.
When Zak and Zoe arrived at the resort and I explained the room situation, they decided to rent a two-bedroom oceanfront cottage that, conveniently, happened to be available. I hated to lodge on their dime even though I knew Zak was some sort of megamillionaire, but he pointed out that with all of us staying in the cottage, which provided two full suites plus a common kitchen and living area, it would be easier to plan our next moves and discuss strategy as the week progressed. Once we settled into the cottage, Zoe and I headed over to a restaurant to pick up some takeout for our dinner, while Zak familiarized himself with the computer we’d been assigned. Although they’d been to Maui before, they’d never visited this resort, so I took a few minutes to give Zoe the grand tour.
“There are three pools,” I said as we walked through the center of the resort. “The one to the right is for adults only and is the best place to relax and maybe have a drink, if we even have time to relax. I’m not sure about that at this point. There’s a lap pool near the gym that usually isn’t crowded if you just want to get some exercise, and the largest pool to the left is a family pool that you’ll probably want to avoid.”
“Why?” Zoe asked after glancing toward it.
“Because of all the kids running and splashing.”
Zoe smiled. “I like kids, but I get your point about the running and splashing. The grounds really are beautiful and the beach looks spectacular. I hope it works out that we have time to relax.”
“You and Zak can always stay on after the contest is over,” I suggested.
Zoe paused, looking around at the grounds surrounding us. “It would be tempting to extend the trip, but you remember, my best friend just had a baby. I hate to leave the kids with her for too long. And I decided not to bring Charlie on this trip, so I know he’ll be missing me if I’m away for too long.”
Zoe was referring to her dog, who usually went everywhere with her. I understood where she was coming from; I was missing my dog, Sandy, who was staying with my brother Jason and his family while I was away. My niece and nephew loved Sandy and he loved hanging out with him, but this trip, on the heels of the one to Ashton Falls, had left me feeling a deficiency in doggy cuddle time.
At the restaurant Zoe ordered a steak, a baked potato, a side salad, and a bottle of wine for Zak and a small salad and bottled water for herself. I ordered a sandwich with blackened Ono and a diet soda. We sat on a bench to the side of the hostess stand while we waited.
“I suppose we could just have ordered room service,” I said.
“We could have,” Zoe agreed, “but I enjoyed the walk. I’m feeling a little queasy after the long flight.”
“Was it a bumpy ride?”
Zoe leaned back and placed a hand on her stomach. “Not really. I guess I just had a bad reaction. So, tell me what you know about the contest.”
I filled Zoe in on everything I’d learned, which wasn’t much.
Zoe paid close attention as I spoke. “You said there are ten teams in the final round. Do you know anything
about the other nine?” Zoe asked.
“Not really. I did overhear a couple of the contestants talking about the team in first place. They’re a brother and sister from Canada. I’m not sure how they’re able to find the clues that much faster than anyone else, but based on what I heard, they’ve pretty much been in first place during the entire contest, including the preliminary rounds, which were held in different locations around the country.”
Zoe narrowed her gaze as she appeared to be considering the situation. “So the entire contest hasn’t been held in Hawaii?”
“No. Just this final round. Bethany said this is the fourth location. There were originally a hundred teams and just the highest-ranking ten came to Maui.” I paused as I tried to remember what else Bethany had told me. “I think the other rounds were in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.”
Zoe tilted her head. “So it doesn’t seem that any one team would necessarily have a home field advantage.”
I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t seem like it. I guess if one team has been in the lead the entire time they must have an advantage at the computer.”
Zoe pulled her legs up onto the bench, tucking them under her. “If that’s the case I have a feeling they aren’t going to be thrilled to find out that Zak is here.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I guess not. Although I don’t care about winning. I’m here to find out what happened to Cammy, not collect the million-dollar grand prize.”
“I agree,” Zoe said. “We’ll just play well enough to stay in the game, but we won’t play to win. In fact, if we play too well we might gain attention we don’t want. It’ll be easier to snoop around if we aren’t seen as a threat. We might want to aim to maintain a position somewhere in the middle of the pack. I bet it’s going to get pretty cutthroat at the top.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
Zoe and I headed back to the cottage when our order was ready. I had to hand it to Zak; he’d set up an entire command center during the time we were gone. Not only was the computer I’d been given to use in the contest up and running but he had two laptops of his own set up as well.
“Aren’t you afraid someone is going to mess with your equipment while we’re away from the cottage?” I asked. The computers he’d brought probably cost more than the truck Luke had purchased recently.
“I plan to take the laptops with us when we leave. And I left instructions at the desk that we weren’t to be disturbed and wouldn’t require maid service. We can trade out the towels and linens as necessary. I thought it might be best not to have people snooping around while we’re out.”
“I got you a steak,” Zoe informed him. “Take a break and eat it before it gets cold.”
Zak turned in his chair and looked at his wife. “You only got a salad?”
“I’m not really hungry,” Zoe answered.
I could see the tenderness in Zak’s eyes turn to concern. “You still aren’t feeling well?”
Zoe took a bite of her salad, then swallowed and smiled in his direction. “I’m fine. Just tired, I guess. Did you get a look at the computer the contest provided?”
Zak, who was tall and fit, with blond hair and blue eyes, sat down next to Zoe. He kissed her cheek before he took the lid off his takeout container and began to add toppings to his potato. “I did. The memory has been erased, but I can recover what was there with the software on my personal laptop. I’m not sure the computer ever held any important information, but if Lani’s friend really did stumble onto something while performing one of the hacks required for the contest, and if that’s what got her killed, I’m going to assume it was while using this computer.” Zak turned and looked at me. “Are you certain this is the same computer she used?”
I shook my head. “No, not really. That’s what I was told, but I don’t know it for a fact.”
“Do you know if Cammy told her partner what she found?” Zak asked me.
I paused. “Maybe. I can call Bethany to ask her for Stone’s contact information. It seems logical Cammy would share what she found with him, although from what I understand, he was the brawn part of the team, so he might not have understood what she told him. Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask. I’ll call Bethany as soon as I finish eating.”
“While you have Bethany on the phone, ask her if Cammy mentioned anything else about the contest,” Zoe suggested. “She might have offered little tidbits about the other contestants or the direction she felt the competition was headed. It occurred to me that if Cammy was pushed and it wasn’t by someone trying to hide whatever she discovered, it could have been by one of her competitors.”
I frowned. “You think one of the other contestants might have pushed her?”
“Her team was in second place. Maybe the first-place team was feeling threatened or the third-place team wanted to eliminate the barrier right ahead of them.”
“But to kill someone over a contest?”
Zoe shrugged. “Unfortunately, I’ve seen people kill for a lot less than the million-dollar prize. Do you know where the accident occurred?”
I nodded. “It’s not far from here. Just down the beach.”
“Maybe after we eat we can take a walk down there to look at things. I’m not sure there will be anything to find, but it seems like a prudent thing to do.”
After dinner Zak went back to the computers and Zoe and I walked down the beach to the bluff where I knew Cammy had fallen. It was a warm evening with a slight, cooling breeze, so there were a lot of resort guests out and about, taking a stroll or watching the sunset.
“I think the sunsets are one of my favorite memories from my first trip to Maui,” Zoe said. “It was so lovely walking on the beach with Zak, hand in hand, as the sun dipped into the sea.”
“They do seem to be a visitor favorite. So you’ve just been here the one time?”
Zoe nodded. “Zak and I have talked about coming for another trip, but so far we haven’t made it back. I really would like to come for a romantic getaway if we can work out the scheduling. Maybe for our anniversary. Zak proposed to me on the beach on that trip.”
I smiled. “You got engaged on Maui?”
Zoe shook her head. “No. Zak proposed on Maui, but I’m afraid I didn’t answer him until Halloween, which would be when the official engagement took place.”
I stopped walking. “Didn’t you tell me that you were on Maui in June?”
Zoe nodded.
“And you didn’t accept Zak’s proposal until October?”
Zoe smiled. “I know to look at us now we seem like an old married couple without a doubt in the world, but I was a huge mess for a very long time. I had all sorts of commitment issues that I couldn’t seem to get past, despite the fact that I loved Zak and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. When he proposed I panicked. Of course Zak knows me better than I know myself at times. He knew I would freak out when he popped the question, so after he asked me to marry him, he told me not to answer him until I had a chance to think things over. Looking back, I have no idea why it took me four months to realize Zak was the love of my life and that I wanted to be with him always. There were times I wanted to run away, but looking at my life from my current perspective, I realize what a huge mistake that would have been.” Zoe paused and looked at me. “I’ve learned something important during the past several years and that’s to follow my heart. That may seem trite, but when I remember that I almost talked myself out of a life with Zak it makes me realized how very illogical the mind can be.”
I couldn’t help but grin. I’m not sure why I felt such a huge rush of relief, but I did. Maybe I figured if Zoe, who was obviously in a deeply happy, committed relationship, could have been so insecure as to keep her future husband waiting for four months for an answer to his marriage proposal, there was hope for me. I wanted to thank Zoe for sharing what she had, but I wasn’t sure what to say, so I continued to the cliff from which Cammy had fallen.
When we arrived at the spot where I’d been told the trag
edy had occurred we paused. We both looked over the side. The drop was substantial, but not so precipitous as to indicate that a fall would absolutely result in death. There were large rocks at the bottom of the cliff, but there were also sandy patches. I thought it was possible if you fell in the right spot from the right angle you could end up with no more than a broken bone or two as a result. Zoe had suggested that perhaps one of the other contestants had pushed Cammy. Could that person have been trying to injure rather than kill her? Somehow I doubted that would end up being the case, but if it was a reasonable enough explanation it should be explored.
******
Back at the cottage, Zoe said she was exhausted and headed off to bed. I called Bethany while Zak shut down the computers and headed to the bedroom behind her. It wasn’t all that late, but with the time change I could see why Zak and Zoe were both tired. I had a feeling tomorrow was going to be a long and challenging day, so I poured myself a glass of the wine Zoe had brought for Zak but he hadn’t drunk, then went out onto the lanai to relax as the sky darkened.
I realized that with the time difference there was a good chance Bethany would have already gone to bed, so instead of calling her, I texted, asking her to call me when she had the opportunity. My phone rang a few minutes later.
“Did you find out anything?” Bethany asked immediately.
I leaned back in my lounge chair. “No, not really. Zak and Zoe Zimmerman are here and I think they’re going to be a lot of help. They were wondering if you’d had a chance to speak to Stone. Zoe thought maybe Cammy had talked to him about what she’d found that concerned her.”
Bethany sighed. “No. I haven’t talked to Stone about anything. He’s so broken up about Cammy’s death that I haven’t wanted to make it worse by grilling him.”
“Do you think Cammy would have discussed her concerns with him?” I asked.
Bethany was quiet for a moment and then said, “Yes, I think she would have. Stone isn’t techy like Cammy, so I don’t know that she would have gone into a lot of detail, but if she found something disturbing I think she would have shared her concerns with him. I’ll try to talk to him tomorrow. I know he’s really hurting, but I imagine that if he feels there’s a way to help find the monster who did this to Cammy, he’ll want to help.”