“Right away, sir.” The waiter smiled and bowed slightly before stepping away from the table. I felt uneasy with the guy’s toady behavior, but it was probably because before long I’d be perfecting the fine points of toady-ism myself.
“I’ll get right to the point.” Todd held my gaze like a stare-down. “I’m here to proposition you.”
Whoa, I thought. Becoming a toady waitress to pay the bills is one thing, moving into the sex trade was something else indeed. I felt a little thrill run down my spine. He wasn’t that bad looking. His conduct could use a little polish, but at least he wasn’t a fat slob like Tank Sherman. And, morals aside, hooker money would be a damn sight better than what I’d make trotting mai tais to pasty-faced tourists.
My reverie about a possible new career path was cut short when he continued.
“I need your help in nailing the Prescotts—or more precisely, Lisa Marie.” He twisted his mouth into a sideways smile that looked like he’d just come from the dentist. “I’ve talked it over with my guys back in Seattle, and we’re pretty sure she’s up to her eyeballs in this, and her father’s protecting her.”
He fell silent while the waiter ceremoniously served us our drinks. The guy hovered for half a minute until Todd shooed him away with a dismissive wave.
“Why are you so sure it’s her” I said.
“Oh, c’mon,” he said. “She’s not as dumb as she’d lead you to believe. DigiSystems finally starts grabbing some headlines and her two so-called fiancés bite it within a two-week period. She’s left looking like a grieving widow—a very prominent widow—I might add.”
I wanted to ask how he imagined she actually killed the guys, but he started up again before I could get it out.
“Listen up. I took a cab down to their place late last night and that sumbitch, Marv, was almost gleeful. Oh, he made like the concerned father, but trust me, underneath all his BS he was laughing his ass off. And, Lisa Marie? She’s psycho. She’s probably counting on an insanity plea to get her off with a short stint in some high-class loony bin. And then when she gets out she’ll just pick up her life where she left off.”
“Todd, I’m not the police. I’m not even a private detective. I can’t imagine how I could help you.”
“Keep your ear to the ground, schmooze with the so-called grieving family and see what you can find out. Lisa Marie was all moony last night about what good friends you two are and how you’ve helped her get through this. Who knows, you might even get her to confess.”
I wanted to laugh. Why would Lisa Marie tell him we’re friends when she spits in my eye every chance she gets?
“Look,” he went on. “I really need you to say ‘yes’ on this. And I’m not asking for charity. I got my board to approve a five-thousand dollar reward for information leading to an arrest of who killed our guys. Not for me, of course, but for whoever helps me. And, from what I can see, it isn’t gonna be the cops who crack this. This morning I called and talked to some guy named Wong who’s assigned to the case. He sounds like he means well, but he’s clueless. Literally.”
“Actually, I heard he may have some evidence.” I regretted it as soon as it was out of my mouth.
“Yeah, what?”
“Oh, it’s probably just gossip. But it seems the police have talked to a guy who called in on the tip line.”
“Probably some beach bum who swears he saw a one-armed man fleeing the scene.” He shook his head. “Look, I know Prescott’s lawyered the girl up with some well-connected local. So even if she doesn’t get off with the psycho act, it’s not hard to see how this will go: the cops will screw up the investigation, then the girl’s lawyer will bribe some on-the-take judge and in the end she’ll get off with a slap on the wrist.”
The more he talked, the more difficult it became for me to not throw my BM in his face and leave. But I wanted to hear him out. Eventually, he might say something of value. If nothing else, I owed it to Kevin—and Farrah—to gather whatever information I could. I’d promised Kevin I’d watch his back. And now his back was stretched out on an autopsy table.
Todd took a gulp of his vodka-laced tomato juice.
“I’ve got to hand it to her,” he said. “She got both guys away from home so she’d get off scot free. Back in the States the police would have nailed her right away for Brad’s murder—when he first disappeared. And Kevin would still be alive. But over here—”
I’d had enough. “First of all, Todd, Hawaii is a state. It’s the fiftieth state. We vote for the president, and we even have our own state quarter. And Glen Wong is a first-rate homicide detective. He’s bucking for promotion, so he has no reason whatsoever to allow this investigation to be compromised. And finally, our local judges have as much integrity—if not more—than any judge you’ll find on the mainland. If Lisa Marie killed your guys, she’ll be found guilty and she’ll go to prison.”
“Says you.”
“Yeah. Says me.”
“Then prove it.”
CHAPTER 24
In a martial arts competition, when an opponent makes an aggressive move it’s crucial to respond immediately. Getting psyched out or waiting for the ideal set-up for a counter-attack is a formula for failure. I vowed to react quickly to Barker’s challenge.
I turned left at the Honoapi’ilani Highway and headed down to Olu’olu. Although I had no doubt Glen Wong was a competent detective, I was baffled why Lisa Marie hadn’t been taken into custody. After all, they had a videotape of her fighting with the murder victim the night he died. What were they waiting for?
The security guard opened the gate with little harassment. Maybe I was finally making an impression on the guy. This time I parked in a different spot—on the other side of the driveway, closer to the entrance than the exit. Although it’s comfortable to stick with the familiar, I think a different perspective is essential to staying sharp. Even in wedding planning, what’s hot one minute is often tossed aside the next. I’ve got six boxes of Chinese red parasols in my attic to prove my point. Last summer, every bridesmaid on Maui was twirling a flashy paper umbrella. Now, they’re so passé only old ladies worried about skin cancer would be caught dead holding one.
Josie answered the door.
“Is Lisa Marie at home?” I said.
She led me to the lanai. Before opening the outside door she said, “Mr. Prescott is only one you can talk to. Miss Lisa Marie not talk to anyone.”
But we’re such good friends.
Marv sat at a table hiding behind a well-creased copy of the Wall Street Journal. He lowered the paper a few inches and peered over it when Josie announced me, then quickly put it back up.
I stood and waited, my blood pressure ticking up with each passing second. I wouldn’t have made a good dog. If I’d had an owner like Marv, I’d have been more likely to bite his ankle than fetch his slippers.
“If you’re here about getting paid, the answer’s still no Ms. Moon.” He kept the newspaper in place, as if looking at me was as burdensome as paying me. “No wedding, so no check.”
“Our arrangement was Lisa Marie would pay for half the expenses and Brad Sanders’ company would pay the other half. I’ve already received a check from DigiSystems even though Brad never got as much as a boutonnière. On Lisa Marie’s instructions, my suppliers purchased paper and printing, cake ingredients, and expensive fabric. We flew in special flowers from South America, and I had little Girl Scouts working for days making origami cranes. Hours and hours of labor were spent getting ready for your daughter’s wedding. It isn’t their fault it didn’t happen.”
“Let’s be clear, Ms. Moon. We received absolutely no value for the services you’ve described, so I don’t feel any obligation to pay for them.”
“I see. Well, my visit this morning is twofold. The first was to ask you once again to step up and pay your outstanding bill. The second is I need a few minutes with Lisa Marie.”
“Why?”
“It’s personal.”
“There�
��s nothing so personal it wouldn’t affect me as well. If you want access to my daughter, you’ll have to convince me it’s in her best interest.”
“As you’re aware, there’s speculation she’s a person of interest in Kevin McGillvary’s death—” I didn’t get a chance to finish before he launched out of his chair with such force I had to step back to avoid a collision.
Snapping the newspaper in my face like a bullwhip, he roared, “Lies! That poor girl spent what was supposed to be her wedding day locked in her room crying her eyes out. And then the cops show up again this morning to interrogate her. This has got to stop!”
His face crumpled.
“She doesn’t need to be hassled, she needs help. Can’t everyone see she’s sick? She rambled on about Brad coming back, and then when Kevin died she just lost it. The cops are using her unstable mental state to extort a phony confession.”
“Has she confessed?” He was right—Lisa Marie wouldn’t be hard to break down. Even on her best days she struggled to separate fact from fiction.
“Not that I know of. But now her lawyer, Joseph Koko-something—”
“His name’s James Kanekoa,” I interrupted.
“Do you know everyone on this lousy rock? Anyway, even her lawyer’s telling us she should consider a plea bargain.”
“Maybe she should.”
“No, no. I’m a thousand-percent certain she had nothing to do with any of this.”
“Marv, I need to tell you to something that might affect Lisa Marie’s decision about the plea bargain.”
“What’s that?”
“The executives at DigiSystems are offering a reward for information leading to an arrest for Brad and Kevin’s deaths. And they’re convinced Lisa Marie was somehow involved.” I didn’t bring up Todd Barker’s name figuring if Barker ended up a floater, it’d be on my head.
“What? Those bastards. What are they thinking?”
“It seems they think it had something to do with gaining control of the company. Since you gave your shares to Lisa Marie, they’re thinking she had a motive.”
Marv’s eyes dodged left and right, as if assessing whether anyone else was within earshot. I hoped he’d offer a plausible explanation, or maybe deny he’d ever transferred any stock to Lisa Marie. He leaned in closer.
“Do the cops know about this?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, it’s all bullshit. I gave Lisa Marie the stock as a small dowry. Brad seemed pretty pleased with the whole notion. But it was never a big deal to Lisa Marie. She’s a pretty girl, but not the sharpest thorn on the bush, if you get my drift. Besides, she’s already sole heir to my business, RRI—which is a damn site bigger than Brad’s little sandbox. Money’s the least of her worries.”
Marv’s mouth was still moving, but I’d stopped listening. I’d already taken in too much information for one morning.
“…we talking about?” His mouth clamped shut and his eyes locked on mine.
“I’m sorry, Marv. I drifted there for a moment.”
“I said, those assholes at DigiSystems are nearly bankrupt as it is. What kind of reward are they talking about?”
“Five thousand dollars.”
“Hell,” he said, “I should be insulted. A cheap bunch of SOB’s from the get-go. Tell you what, Ms. Moon: I find you annoying, but I respect your persistence. You help me get my daughter off the hook and I’ll double it.”
CHAPTER 25
The ride back home was remarkably uneventful. Good thing, because I spent the better part of it locked in a mental fistfight with myself. I’d throw a punch for nailing Lisa Marie for being some kind of serial killer, and then I’d counterpunch she was simply an easy scapegoat and had undoubtedly been framed.
Todd Barker and Marv Prescott were both right about one thing: I knew a lot of local people. Even better, I could fly under the radar while I snooped around. But why was I even thinking of getting involved? Maybe it was to prove Todd Barker wrong about Hawaii being a corrupt backwater. Maybe it was simply to collect the reward money and pay my bills. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe it was a chance to quash the nagging feeling I’d had since they’d ID’d Kevin. Simply put, I’d failed him. Failure had been dogging me ever since I left the air marshal job. The government invested thousands of dollars training me and I up and quit after less than a year. How lame was that?
When I pulled in at the house, Hatch was sitting on the porch playing tug-of-war with Lipton. Hatch and I still hadn’t cleared the air about the redhead sleepover and Valentine’s Day debacle, but neither of us seemed eager to bring it up.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey, yourself,” he said. “I’ve got some news.” He dropped his end of the rope and Lipton started chewing it like a two-dollar steak.
“Not as juicy as my news,” I said.
He looked annoyed.
“You go first,” I offered.
“Guess who showed up here about a half hour ago?”
“No clue.”
“That jerk you told me about—Toilet Tank or whatever.”
“Tank Sherman?”
“I guess. He had some snarky-looking real estate guy with him. They snooped around the yard, but I wouldn’t let them go inside. He said he’d see you later this afternoon.”
“Yeah, he thinks he’s buying me out today. But I’ve got a line on something that—if it works out—could pay me almost enough to save this house and keep “Let’s Get Maui’d” out of his chubby clutches.”
“You sign up a big wedding? Who is it—one of those Google guys?”
“Not a wedding. An investigation. There’s a reward being offered to find out who killed Brad Sanders and Kevin McGillvary. I just need to dig up enough evidence for an arrest.”
“Hate to break it to you, but somebody’s already got that job.”
“But the police are only focusing on Lisa Marie.”
“For now.” He patted his thigh and Lipton jumped in his lap. “These things take time.”
“The police don’t have time. While Wong’s busy hassling loony-tunes Lisa Marie, the actual killer could be hot-footing it back to the mainland.”
“The actual killer? You think Lisa Marie’s innocent?”
“Who knows? I can think of at least three other suspects who ought to be brought in for questioning.”
“Listen to you. You’ve been watching too much ‘Law & Order.’ No offense, but what makes you think you can out-cop the cops?”
“Because I grew up here. I know locals in every corner of this island—from the governor’s office to the guy who scrubs toilets at the Maui Prince. I can ask questions and get answers without people clamming up. And even better, I sleep under the same roof as a guy who was a cop and still thinks like one.”
I shot him a hopeful look.
His face turned to stone. “I don’t do that anymore.”
“Why not?” I said.
His face didn’t soften. “Look, you’re way out of your league here. Leave it to the professionals.”
I went inside and made myself a sandwich. I scrounged a warped yellow pad from the kitchen junk drawer and while I ate, I jotted down what I knew so far.
“The homicide guys make murder books,” Hatch said when he came in and saw what I was doing. He sat down at the table. “You know, investigations are complex. There are a million details you’ve got to keep organized.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, my friend. I put on weddings for women who swear a misplaced bow or the wrong shade of pink ranks right up there with a flesh-eating virus. Trust me, I’m all about the details.”
“What’s the deal with the reward money?”
I explained how Todd Barker had offered five thousand dollars and Marv had countered he’d double it if I’d prove Lisa Marie was innocent.
“That’s what he said?”
I thought about it. “No, his words were he’d pay me double if I’d help ‘get his daughter off the hook’.”
“See? Details. World of difference between innocence and getting away with it.” He looked at his watch. “I gotta go get ready for physical therapy. Like I said, stay out of this. This isn’t a game.”
After Hatch left I looked over my notes. I’d listed my possible suspects, starting with Lisa Marie. I included Marv, but I couldn’t come up with a solid motive. Marv could most definitely be part of a cover-up, though. The third name was Tank Sherman because of the real estate deal. Finally, I’d written ‘Takeover Company,’ since Barker had mentioned that losing the two DigiSystems founders had hammered the stock price. Anyone looking to buy the company had good reason to do whatever it took to get a rock bottom price.
I looked up at the kitchen clock. It was noon—only four hours until Tank was supposed to show up. Before then, I wanted to talk to Todd Barker. I called and he agreed to see me at one-thirty.
***
As I trotted through the lush tropical lobby of the Royal Crown Kamehameha, I picked out Barker sitting at the same table he’d been at that morning. Was it a fluke or had he slipped the maitre d’ a ten spot to let him camp out there for the day? Hard to know. The guy definitely had comfort zone issues.
“I hope you’re bringing me a signed confession.” He pointed to my beach bag purse.
“Hardly,” I said. “I need to ask you a few questions about DigiSystems.”
“I’m not at liberty to say much.”
“Why?”
“I told you, there’s a possible takeover in play. We’re practically strip-searching our employees as they leave from work every day. Total confidentiality.”
“Okay, well tell me what you can about Lisa Marie getting Marv’s stock.”
“That’s no secret. Marv signed it over to her late last year. She got a pretty large chunk, but she didn’t attend the stockholders’ meeting last month. Probably trying to maintain a low profile while she plotted her massacre. ”
“Can you tell me how much Marv’s original investment was?”
“Can’t divulge that.”
Maui Widow Waltz (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series) Page 19