“Seems Wong’s come up with a whole new scenario and a new motive.”
I let my facial expression egg him on.
“Did you know there was some hinky stuff going on at Sander’s and McGillvary’s company? Word is a competitor was sniffing around, thinking of buying them out.”
I didn’t let on I already knew this.
“Glen Wong said he talked to your pal Barker this afternoon and Barker told him the stock tanked but now another company has stepped in and upped the bid.”
“A different company?” I said.
“I guess. I don’t understand all that Wall Street lingo but he said it’s called an ‘eleventh-hour rescue’ or some such thing.”
“Huh. Did Wong say how that might affect the murder investigation?”
“Not in so many words, but I’m guessing if he thinks maybe the first company had the two guys killed so they could buy DigiSystems on the cheap, then that expands the suspect pool to more than just Lisa Marie.”
“Why’s Wong telling you all this?” I said.
“Damned if I know. Maybe he’s leaking information so witnesses will be more willing to come forward. You know, salting the mine.”
“Or,” I said, “maybe he’s tossing around disinformation to make the killers think the cops are going down the wrong path. He’s hoping they’ll get cocky and blab.”
“We got any more of that ice cream with the nuts in it?” said Hatch.
“I’ll check,” I said. I got up and checked. “Nope, all out.”
“I’ve been thinking about that ice cream all day,” he said. “How ‘bout it Steve? You drive, I’ll buy.”
That night I mulled over Todd Barker’s conversation with Glen Wong about a possible second offer on DigiSystems. Barker hadn’t said a word to me about any eleventh-hour rescue, and if he’d learned about it after our meeting, why hadn’t he called? Weren’t we both on the same side here?
That’s when it hit me: maybe we weren’t.
CHAPTER 28
As if being a low value chip in Todd Barker’s high stakes poker game wasn’t bad enough, the Sunday edition of The Maui News upped the ante. When Brad disappeared, the paper reported Lisa Marie’s plight with almost familial concern. Then Kevin showed up dead. After that, the reporter assigned to the story seemed to take a step back and re-evaluate. He no longer referred to Lisa Marie as ‘the widow bride.’ Now it was the ‘maka wai bride,’ or ‘tearful bride.’ Although on its face the reference appeared sympathetic, I detected a touch of snide. Maka wai is also used by locals when referring to fake grief—what mainlanders call ‘crocodile tears.’
I was rummaging through the cupboards looking for something to fix for lunch when the kitchen phone rang. It was Marv.
“I lost out on golfing Pebble Beach yesterday,” he said, hardly giving me time to say hello. “And I can live with that. But I’ve got to get back to work. I can’t sit around while these local yokels screw around playing Hawaii Five-Oh.”
I wondered if he’d dialed the wrong number.
“Anyway, Ms. Moon, I don’t have time for chit-chat. I called to redefine our business relationship.”
Was he going to try and weasel out on the reward money?
“Redefine it? How so, Marv?”
“Since they’re calling Lisa Marie a ‘person of interest,’ she needs to stay here, but we don’t. Tina wants to get the hell off this island tomorrow morning and so do I. Personally, I’d like to bring Lisa Marie back to the States with us and tell the cops to go to hell, but her lawyer thinks that could make matters worse.”
“I hope you’re not considering another proxy marriage.”
“No, no. Nothing that stupid. What I’m proposing is for you to move in down here for a while. You know, to keep an eye on things. You could ferry Lisa Marie around when she needs to go to the lawyer’s office or shopping or whatever. That way, Tina and I can leave and I won’t be constantly worrying about my daughter.”
“Well, I—”
“Look, I know Lisa Marie can be a handful. And now that she’s doing this nut job routine, it’s gotten pretty ugly. But I’m prepared to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” He chuckled at that—I didn’t.
Before I could figure out how to gracefully decline, he continued.
“How about four C’s a week to be her companion?”
“Four hundred dollars?”
“That’s right. And if you manage to get her cut loose from this circus, you’re still on for the ten grand. Think about it, Ms. Moon, this could prove to be the most profitable non-wedding you ever put on.”
“Well, thanks for thinking of me, but I don’t see how I could manage tracking down information to get Lisa Marie exonerated if I’m spending all my time down at Olu’olu.”
“Okay, I’ll make it seven C’s—a hundred bucks a day.”
I hadn’t realized it was a price negotiation.
“Marv, I just don’t see how I could do both things at the same time.”
“Look, you put together weddings, right? And you don’t think you can manage two tasks at the same time? Hell, you led me to believe that on any given day you’re juggling twenty things or more.”
Ah, my Achilles’ heel—questioning my work ethic.
“Well, I—”
“I have faith in you, Ms. Moon. Only thing is, I can’t have you bringing strangers down here to the house. I want you to personally account for her whereabouts every minute from seven at night until seven in the morning. But if during the day you need to leave for an hour or so to do this other business, I can live with that.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Marv’s offer was starting to look like an offer I couldn’t—or shouldn’t—refuse. How hard could it be to make sure she stayed put while she watched her soaps all day and then check in on her during the night? And the money was certainly tempting.
“What does Lisa Marie think about this arrangement?”
“Who gives a shit what she thinks? She’s mental.”
Seems I’d bumped up against the outer boundaries of Marv’s fatherly concern.
“Oh, and just so we’re clear,” he went on, “this is the full meal deal. We’ll keep the staff on until this thing blows over, so you’re pretty much free to just paint your nails and chit chat with Lisa Marie all day. No work involved. She’s been sleeping a lot, so that should leave you plenty of time to chip away at the cops’ bogus case against her.”
“Isn’t that what her lawyer’s supposed to be doing?”
“I suppose. But he’s a grease ball. I don’t think he’s all that smart.”
I probably should’ve stuck up for James Kanekoa, but I didn’t want to debate James’ intellect, or lack thereof, with a multimillionaire mob boss who probably hadn’t even finished high school. And besides, I didn’t know how dedicated James was to proving Lisa Marie’s innocence. He might assume, as did nearly everyone else on Maui, that she was some kind of black widow killer. Maybe James’ strategy wasn’t focused on proving her innocence, but rather on getting her declared mentally unstable.
But I wasn’t sold on her innocence either. I felt she was hiding something, and the whole whacko act might be just that—an act. If I found out she was involved in the killings, I’d be first in line pointing a finger—screw Marv’s ten grand reward.
“It’s a generous offer, Marv, but I’ll need one more thing before I say ‘yes’.”
“What’s that?”
“A check for the wedding expenses—on your desk when I get there.”
“Oh, for crying out loud. How much we talking about here?”
“I still owe my vendors almost four thousand dollars.”
“Tell you what. I’ll give you half that. You can use your Lisa Marie companion money to make up the rest.”
“Make it three thousand and you’ve got a deal.”
“I wish I’d met you under different circumstances, Ms. Moon. I’d have found a place for you in my organization.”
“I’ll take that
as a compliment, Marv.”
“You should. I need your ass down here tomorrow by eight a.m. sharp. We’ve filed a flight plan and need to leave by ten. Get here by eight so I won’t have to leave the nut case alone by herself for too long.”
“I’ll be there—right on time.”
“Good. And I’ll have the check waiting for you in the guest room. I’d like you to consider my office off limits while you’re here.”
We said our good-byes and I went upstairs to get my laundry basket. I needed to wash a few things before packing for an extended stay at Olu’olu.
I came downstairs and found Steve and Hatch in the living room watching a golf tournament. Since neither of them had ever mentioned golf or, to my knowledge ever played a round of golf, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t mind being interrupted.
“Guess what?” I did a ‘tah-dah’ thing with my hands to alert them I had something worthy of their attention.
“Tank Sherman’s been found hanging by his ankles in Hana,” said Steve.
“No.”
“Your long lost father’s turned out to be Donald Trump.”
“No, and not funny.”
“How about they’ve arrested Lisa Marie for Kevin’s murder?”
“No, but you’re getting warmer.”
“How about you just spit it out because I’m getting tired of guessing?”
“Okay. Marv Prescott just called and hired me to move down to Olu’olu to keep an eye on Lisa Marie. He and the trophy wife don’t want to stick around Maui and the police ordered Lisa Marie to not leave the island. Marv’s paying me a hundred bucks a day to be her alibi.”
Hatch’s face darkened. “I don’t like it. It could be dangerous.”
“What? Watching Lisa Marie? I could be brain dead and do it. She’s a tree sloth.”
“No, I mean staying down there with those sleaze-balls.” He looked over at Steve as if hoping to garner support.
Steve flicked his eyes back and forth between the two of us, apparently not ready to weigh in on which way he was leaning.
“Think about it,” Hatch went on, “Lisa Marie’s unstable and she may even be a murderer. Not to mention that ‘Harry the Hacker’ and ‘Petey the Pervert’ are probably regular guests at Prescott’s mafia Camp David. I don’t think it’s safe, and I don’t want you to go.”
“I agree with Hatch,” said Steve. “Tell him to hire some schmuck destined for the witness protection program to watch his crazy daughter.”
“I’ve got three reasons I already said ‘yes.’ One, he’s paying me a hundred a day, two, he’s agreed to finally give me a check for his side of the wedding expenses, and three, I’ll have a chance to really check out what’s going on with Lisa Marie.”
“What do you care?” said Steve. “Seems to me now that the wedding’s a bust she’s no longer your problem.”
I hesitated. Steve didn’t know about the reward money—or much else about my clandestine investigation. It was time to either come clean or dish up a pretty good fib.
Turns out, I wasn’t in a truthful mood.
“Kevin was my client—I guess technically both Kevin and Brad were clients—and while I was working for them they both died. Not only that, because they died, I lost my business to the likes of Tank Sherman. In order to let it go and move on without regrets, I need to know what happened. I’m not feeling very positive about the police solving this case. It’s been more than forty-eight hours, you know.”
“Noble cause, Pali,” Steve said. “But what’ll you do if you stumble into something you can’t handle? I say leave it to Wong and move on.”
“I appreciate you guys’ opinion, but this isn’t up for a vote. I’ll call every day to check in, but, as of tomorrow morning, my address will be Olu’olu.”
“Can we visit?” said Steve.
“Afraid not. Marv’s kind of skittish about having strangers in the house.”
“Oh jeez, Pali. That’s just great,” said Hatch. “You’re locked in and everybody else is locked out. Don’t you see how insane this is?”
“Insane? Maybe you haven’t noticed, but my whole life’s gone nutso in the past couple of weeks. I’m trying to put a stop to it by earning enough money to pay my debts and hang on to my house and business.”
Steve shook his head. “Isn’t that the same speech you gave me a couple of weeks ago when you first signed up Lisa Marie?” He paused for a beat. “Oh yeah, and remind me again how that worked out?”
CHAPTER 29
At seven o’clock Monday morning I zipped up my suitcase and quietly tip-toed down the stairs. Hatch got up from the sofa and hobbled over to block my exit.
“I really don’t want you going down there.”
“Did you sleep on the sofa?”
“Don’t try and change the subject. I told you before, this could be dangerous.”
“I know. But I’ll be okay. You’ve never seen me fight, but trust me, they don’t award black belts for congeniality. I can handle it.”
“Can you catch a bullet in your teeth?”
I punched him lightly on his good shoulder.
“I didn’t think so. Why are you doing this—for the money? ‘Cuz if it’s just about money, I’ll loan you some, no problem.”
“No, it’s more than that. Please don’t worry. I promise I’ll call every day. What more can I say?”
“You could say you’ve wised up and you’re not going to do it.”
“Wised up? Are you calling me stupid?”
“You said it, not me.”
I picked up my suitcase and dodged past him. When I left, I didn’t bother closing the door.
I fired up the Geo and took a minute to savor one last look at my house and yard. There was no way I’d allow this place to go to foreclosure. Then I remembered Tank had threatened to buy it. I gunned the engine and headed out.
While driving to Olu’olu I did the math on my financial situation. Even without the reward money I was close to settling my debts. I had the two thousand dollars rent money from Hatch and I’d be getting seven hundred from Marv in the coming week. That was almost enough to catch up on my mortgage payments and pay at least the minimum on my past due bills. And with Marv’s check for the wedding expenses I’d be able to reimburse nearly everyone except me for their out-of-pocket costs. Whatever craziness I’d be facing at Olu’olu was nothing compared to the relief of saving my home and my reputation.
Approaching Olu’olu I spotted a break in traffic and made a wild left from Honoapi’ilani Highway. I skidded toward the gate. Luckily it was open. Maybe Marv and Tina had just left for the airport or maybe the security guy was expecting me. I parked in my favorite spot, as close to the exit as possible. I popped the trunk and took out my scruffy black roller suitcase with the gimpy wheel.
“I’ll take that.” It was the big Fijian guy who’d harassed me when he’d caught me sneaking around the house.
“Thanks.” I didn’t know if Fijians used the word mahalo, and I didn’t want to draw attention to our differences. For all I knew, the guy could have been third generation Hawaiian-born and raised, but from the looks of him, I doubted it.
Josie met me at the door with a big smile and a glass of guava juice on ice.
“Lisa Marie is in the sunroom,” she said, leading me to the now familiar room. “I think it’s nice of you to come and keep her company.”
I didn’t know if it was the language barrier or if my role had been misconstrued, but I decided against setting her straight. After all, I was rather fond of guava juice.
“Miss Pali is here,” Josie announced as we stepped through the French doors.
Lisa Marie—in a two-piece French terry lounging outfit—was propped up on one of the brilliant yellow sofas. Her face was buried in a Hollywood gossip magazine. She peeked over the top, then raised it again and continued reading. I couldn’t miss the eerie resemblance to Marv’s behavior with his Wall Street Journal.
“Bah wahp,” she said, her voice mu
ffled by the magazine.
“Pardon me?” I said. It was more reflex than any real curiosity about what she’d said.
“I said, big whoop.” She lowered the glossy magazine and stared at me as if hoping to make me vanish through sheer will. “Like I’m supposed to be glad Daddy’s hired a gopher to spy on me.”
I told her I was there to make sure she had an alibi witness since the police were still investigating.
“Like I’m going to go and, like, kill a bunch of other people?”
Her cold snarl made me want to shake all over like a wet dog, but I kept it in check.
“I don’t think your dad thinks you’re planning to do anything. He just wants to make sure you don’t get accused of something.”
“Like anybody’s going to believe you.” She stretched out on the sofa and draped the magazine over her face.
I took the hint.
Josie showed me to my room. It was the one I’d seen earlier, the first bedroom on the left with the mahogany bed swathed in mosquito netting and the enormous ceiling fan slowly churning the humid air. The Fijian security guy—who Josie told me was named Kamisese, but went by George—had placed my suitcase on a luggage stand at the end of the bed. The zipper was open a couple of inches and I wondered if he’d taken the opportunity to sneak a peek. Didn’t matter; I’d left the family jewels at home.
As promised, Marv’s check for the wedding expenses was on the nightstand. He’d made it out to Polly Moone. Maybe he was being ornery or maybe he didn’t know how to spell my name, but it didn’t matter. I was on a first-name basis at the bank so I’d have no problem cashing it.
I peered out the large shuttered window. It opened onto a tiny courtyard tightly packed with dense tropical foliage—a banana tree, birds of paradise, and philodendrons with dinner-plate sized leaves. When I flipped the shutters aside and pulled the window open, ocean-fresh air flooded the room.
I plopped down on the bed to see if the obscenely rich had the same notion of comfort as the rest of us. I’m not much for rock-hard mattresses. No matter what so-called back experts say, I don’t sleep well on anything approaching ‘firm.’ The nights I’d spent on the sofa bed squished next to Farrah and Sir Lipton had left me tired and achy. I longed for Baby Bear plush, or at least Mama Bear middle-of-the-road.
Maui Widow Waltz (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series) Page 21