by Kym Roberts
Oh, shit. She believed it. She believed Joe hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Can I have the test?” She asked.
“Uh—” I looked down at the bag in my hand. “Yeah, sure. Are you going to be okay?”
“Someone did this to Joe. He wouldn’t do this to himself.” Her voice was soft but strong, and I knew I couldn’t leave. Not yet. She was going to need me when that test came back positive.
I started rewinding the night in my head. Joe walking into the store, getting coffee and…yes, he did take a drink, but there’s no drug in the world that would act that quickly. I wanted to argue with her, but Pai stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. I mumbled something about us talking about it after we knew what we were dealing with.
“Do you want some help?” Pai asked.
“Please. I don’t think I can get him to the bathroom by myself.”
I read the instructions in the box while Pai helped Joe to the bathroom and Jade followed. This test was pretty simple, pee in the cup, hold the sensor in the urine for ten seconds and five minutes later, we would know what drug or drugs he was using.
I handed the cup and the test strip to Jade, who excused Pai while she assisted her husband. Pai and I stood around awkwardly in the living room, feeling like we were intruding in this couple’s private life.
Pai broke the silence. “You can watch the guards tomorrow. You don’t need to go back tonight.”
I knew with a short-term contract there wasn’t a minute to waste if Pai was going to find out what was going on, and the last thing I wanted to do was to be alone with him, especially after what had transpired between he and Jade.
“I won’t let you down. I’ll get the job done tonight.”
“Baby Doll, I feel your division of loyalties pulling you apart. Jade needs you here.”
Jade walked out of the bathroom with a remarkably sober Joe. Sober, but judging by his squinting, the lights were too much to deal with while majorly hung over.
His betrayal brought out that juvenile side of me that wanted to bang their kitchen pots together and yell “Boo!’’ in his ear.
Jade supported her husband, who was actually taller than she was, with his arm slung over her shoulder while she held onto his waist. Joe pressed his lips to her ear in a tenderly appreciative kiss. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was sick, maybe just home from the hospital after having surgery.
“I’ll get you some medicine for your headache.” Jade smiled at her husband, and Pai stepped up to help Joe to the couch while Jade went into the kitchen.
If Joe was my husband, I’d pour a whole damn bottle of pain reliever down his throat, but this Jade was not the Jade I grew up with. Not the girl who dumped her spaghetti and meat sauce over her high school sweetheart’s head when he winked at a cheerleader. Then again, if my instincts were on target, she’d cheated on her husband…with Pai. The old Jade would have never done that, either.
I was so confused by everything, the urge to run out the door nearly choked me. Jade was in denial and I really didn’t deal well with women who made excuses for their man’s behavior. She looked at me with conviction in her eyes, just daring me to voice my feelings and malign her husband’s character.
I bit off what I really wanted to say, taking the easy way out instead. “If you don’t need anything else, Pai and I are going to leave.”
“No, I want you to stay for the test results.” Her voice was gaining in conviction. How could she believe his shit? Yet, if she chose to believe someone drugged him instead of him taking it voluntarily, who was I to try and change her mind?
Pai and I stood around looking uncomfortable, while Jade went into the kitchen to make coffee. Joe just sat on the loveseat with his eyes closed. The five minutes passed faster than I expected and Jade went into the bathroom for the result. I waited for her departure from the makeshift lab, ringing my hands together until Pai grabbed one hand and squeezed it gently. Any minute now she was going to be making up some lame excuse for her husband’s addiction.
Jade exited the bathroom, wearing the biggest smile you could possibly imagine. Her eyes went straight to Joe, who stood up and returned it with a goofy one of his own. The distance between them disappeared and Jade was off the ground, twirling around in Joe’s arms in the middle of their living room.
Joe was completely sober. Not a noticeable trace left of being under the influence. No drooling. No stumbling. No squinting. Just happily in love. The two of them laughed, hugged, and kissed.
In between their love-fest, Jade exclaiming, “I knew,” kiss, kiss, “you wouldn’t do drugs,” kiss, “or drink while driving.”
“Thank you for having faith in me.” Joe’s eyes welled up with tears before they embraced in a very steamy kiss. That was all the excuse Pai needed. He grabbed my hand and we quietly headed for the door.
Jade interrupted our escape from the confines of Joe’s embrace. “There were no drugs in Joe’s system, the test was negative.” She beamed at her husband.
Before I could argue that the test was a false negative, Joe turned toward us.
“Thank you for bringing me home. I’m lucky you came by.”
I became acutely aware of Pai still holding my hand, I immediately pulled away, and decided to go along with the farce. “Can you tell us what happened tonight?”
“I don’t know. I left the house and everything was fine. Jade and I were running late when we dropped the baby off at her mom’s. After I took Jade to work, I went straight to the site, but I knew I wouldn’t make it through the night without a lot of coffee, so I left. I’m sorry, Mr. Lincoln. I understand if you don’t want me working for you anymore.”
Jade turned toward Pai and a look passed between them. Something I couldn’t identify and wasn’t sure I wanted to.
“Mr. Lincoln, our baby has been sick, and Joe has been letting me sleep more than he should have. He’s a good, honest man.” Jade’s emphasis on ‘honest’ made Pai squirm. Not visibly, but I felt it.
“What happened when you stopped for coffee?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I ran in to get a cup and went to pay for it.” His eyebrows clenched in concentration, and then he shook his head. “That’s the last thing I remember until I was being helped out of a little car by Mr. Lincoln in front of my house.”
If I believed Joe, then I was the only witness to what happened to him. I remembered the silly grin he got on his face as he looked at Windy. Something tickled at my brain. I missed something.
“Do you remember the cashier at the store?” I asked.
As Joe thought about it, his face went completely blank. Either he was a damn good liar, or something happened to him right before he paid for his coffee. There was no way any man would forget coming face-to-boob with Windy’s chest.
The suspicion of missing something nudged at my memory and suddenly I believed him. Joe was telling the truth.
“I think you better make an appointment with your doctor and make sure there isn’t a medical reason for what happened,” I suggested.
“It’s not necessary. There’s nothing wrong with Joe.” Jade looked directly at Pai.
“But—”
Pai interrupted me. “Make sure you’re on time tomorrow, Joe.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Lincoln.” Joe shook Pai’s hand with gratitude, and Pai and I walked out together.
The mystery wasn’t solved, but I had another case to work. After I escaped my tiny little Pai-filled car.
Oh, boy.
Chapter Sixteen
Downtown Koloa is about three blocks long, anchored by the intersection of Maluhia Road and Koloa Road. There’s one strip of shops facing Maluhia, and a few others located on the backside, with access through side roads and alleys. That’s how I get to my apartment, and where we first caught sight of the Ducati Streetfighter racing away. My heart plummeted.
“That guy’s going to kill himself.”
I heard the concern in Pai’s voi
ce, and wondered if he’d still care if he knew it was Makaio taking the corner at Poipu Road twice as fast as the posted speed limit. At one moment, both vehicles had been stationary at the stop signs, and Makaio’s hand actually raised to the visor on his helmet. Then it gripped the handlebar hard and his bike spat out gravel behind him. He was definitely pissed off about Pai driving my car.
Makaio thought I’d lied to him. He thought I was out on the town with Pai. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved to have one of the sexy men out of my life, or not. I mean, now I didn’t have to choose, right? Of course, not getting the opportunity to choose, kind of sucked.
We rode the rest of the way to the convenience store in silence, which would have been pleasant, had I not been thinking about how I’d hurt Makaio’s feelings and what he probably thought of me. Then there was that twisted knot in my gut I refused to identify.
Pai pulled into the lot and turned off the ignition. I jumped out of the car before he could turn and kiss me. Not that I didn’t like his kisses, I was just a little confused.
“I’ll be right back. I need to get some stuff inside.”
I nearly ran into the store but slowed down once inside in order to load my arms with energy sources for my late night stakeout. Lack of energy hadn’t been a problem so far, but I knew that by three A.M. I’d be hurting. I grabbed a bottle of green tea and in my haste, hip-checked a boy grabbing an energy drink. He careened backward nearly taking out his mom in the process before she gained her balance and saved them both.
“Sorry, I—oh.” I stopped mid-sentence.
The boy wasn’t a boy, but a full-sized man standing just shy of five foot with facial hair.
“That’s okay, I love to be woman-handled by the taller sex. That’s why I married her.” He grinned at the woman I thought was his mother, who was actually his very pretty wife.
“He most certainly does,” his wife announced. Then she grabbed his face and kissed him hard in front of everyone.
A few customers ‘whooped’ before the couple broke apart.
“Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to knock you over.”
“No, worries. I think I’ve been more than compensated.” He winked at his wife who smacked him on the rear.
I returned to my mental list of treats and added a bottle of water, a green tea, a bag of chocolate treats and sunflower seeds to my cache. As I approached the cash register, I realized Windy was still working, and I suddenly wanted to dump my stuff and run out the door the same way I’d run in. Until she saw me standing two-deep in line. There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d give her the satisfaction of seeing me cower.
“Well, if it isn’t the little surfer girl who lost her top,” she said in a sickeningly sweet voice loud enough to bounce off all the walls and have every man in the place turn to look for boobies.
Don’t think I didn’t catch the word ‘little’ in her description. I just chose to ignore it. Windy’s announcement had the effect she craved, all the men looked in the direction of her half-exposed breasts. A smile of satisfaction curved her lips. She rewarded her audience with a little wiggle. She leaned over the counter, nearly spilling out of the low scooped neckline. I’m pretty sure at least one nipple peeked at its onlookers.
A drunk giggled behind me. I turned and a sense of déjà vu washed over me when the boy/man I’d plowed over in the drink aisle stumbled forward. His wife came running from the rear of the store, grabbed the items from his arms and threw them on a shelf before whisking him out the door without a word spoken between them.
An image of Joe stumbling out of the store flashed in my mind. Neither man had been on my radar as out-of-control drunk until they approached the counter. I looked around for a source. The ceiling, the shelves, the floor, I turned in three hundred and sixty degrees. Nothing stood out as a hazardous chemical or intoxicant that would cause the bizarre behavior of the two different men. I looked at the other patrons. No one appeared inebriated, or even the slightest bit intoxicated. Drooling over exposed skin, however, was a different story. They’d have to mop the floor in about ten minutes.
“Aloha, can I help you?”
The skinny guy with the nerdy glasses working alongside Windy looked at me expectantly. I walked past Windy still shaking her basketballs for the customer in front of me and approached her co-worker. A young guy in his twenties, who apparently got enough of Windy’s boobs every day. He didn’t give her wiggle-jiggle a second glance.
After paying for the over-priced stash of get-up-and-go junk food, I ignored Windy and headed out the door. Leaning against my car with his arms and ankles crossed, heat radiated off Pai like black top on a hot summer day. I tried not to notice the imposing sexual air clinging to him as he stepped away from my Mini and held the door open for me. I scooted past him and slid into the seat. He leaned over, and I couldn’t avoid his eye contact, as he closed the door.
“Baby Doll, I will never pressure you to do something you do not want to do.” He winked. “Unless you want me to.”
He knew I didn’t want to kiss him, yet I was dying to be entangled in his arms. He always knew my feelings before I understood them. “Thank you. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
Pai leaned over and kissed the top of my head.
“Ā hui hou, Baby Doll.”
Until we meet again. I sighed with pleasure, relief and disappointment all mixed together in a jumbled mess. I started my car and tried to ignore his red Jeep as I passed it in the parking lot, but I couldn’t resist that alluring smile. I smiled at Pai and waved goodbye.
It was going to be a long and lonely night at The Garden of the Gods.
Chapter Seventeen
The streets were deserted. The skies were clear, and I’d counted almost two hundred stars in the sky by three o’clock. Pai had called another guard in to work Joe’s shift…James Kamakau. Like a battery operated bunny — short, with really large ears — he ran around at full speed, checking everything from the lock on the secondary gate to parked cars on the street. He even ran off a couple who were making out in the back seat of a sports car near the entrance of the complex.
Luckily, I was a good block and a half away, near the emergency vet clinic, which rarely had middle-of-the-night business. Otherwise, he’d probably run me off, too. Although in all honesty, I kind of missed the happy-for-now couple. Between the screams of pleasure and the car rocking and rolling, it almost made me think they were on the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime.
Okay, not really. It was better to think of them at an amusement park, than to wish it was me in that back seat, getting busy with one of the cousins.
I watched the guard make his round of the complex through my low-light binoculars. They weren’t as good as the night vision goggles I’d tried on at Pai’s office, but they were easier to take away from my face in case an emergency patient arrived at the clinic. Plus I’m not sure how I’d explain the goofy space-age glasses that made me resemble a foreigner visiting Area 51.
I snuck out of my car for the third time that night and eased my way over the lava rock wall surrounding the site. It was the only spot I could easily scale thanks to a stone missing halfway up the wall.
The hour was approaching when a lot of people working midnights decide to take a nap. If he took a nap, I couldn’t blame him. I needed a nap so badly I was ready to make a deal with him myself.
Unconsciously I got closer to the guard than I had on my two previous trips, and was amazed to see just how small in stature he really was. The man wasn’t even five foot tall. He was muscular for his size, but that was probably over-compensation on his part.
A snap of the branch under my foot brought his flashlight swinging in my direction. I froze, bent over, barely hidden from his view behind a fern. If he’d been taller, he would have spotted me the second his light hit the area. I held my breath, afraid he’d walk through the wall of brush that stood between us. His cell phone rang.
“Lincoln Security,” he whispered into the phone.
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br /> There was a pause, and then my target began moving around trying to scan the area as he held the phone to his ear.
“Sir, can I check the log for you after I finish my rounds?” He asked the person on the phone.
I could hear garbled yelling on the other end as his flashlight illuminated my head once more.
My pulse quickened with apprehension. How was I going to explain being in the bushes? Shit.
“No, sir, I’m not on a ‘wild chicken chase.’ Yes, sir, I’ll get it for you right away,” he whispered into the phone.
His flashlight swung away from me as he turned back toward the guard shack. As soon as he was on the path, I high-tailed it out of there, found my hole in the wall and returned to my car to watch his flashlight bob back and forth on his route to the guard shack.
Breathless, I decided that the next time he made rounds, I’d just follow his light through the property from the wall. If it disappeared for too long or stopped, I’d check on him. Otherwise, I wasn’t going to risk getting caught again.
Over an hour later, my eyes were about ready to roll back in my head.
I’d been going back and forth between a chocolate-induced sugar high and a smacky cotton mouth from sucking on too many sunflower seeds. My water was gone, and I wished I’d bought two green teas for the caffeine. And now that I thought about it, my bladder was knocking on the restroom door.
A set of car lights approached. The first fifty cars that drove past had me on the edge of my seat, but I was well past the counting stage, so this one barely made my eyes focus. As it drew closer, though, it slowed down. And the slower it went, the more alert I became. The driver was obviously looking for something. But the only businesses open in the immediate area was Pearl’s Hawaiian Pastries (did I tell you about the neon hula dancer sporting a cowboy hat and boots?) and the vet’s office. You couldn’t miss either sign.
I watched as the vehicle pulled into the parking lot of Sunny Snorkel Rental’s west of The Garden of the Gods, and wondered if I was about to witness a burglary. The building was dark, the hand-painted sign unreadable in the dim light to anyone who didn’t know the area. Hopefully, it was an over-zealous business owner coming to work early. Glancing at my watch, I mentally logged the arrival time of the vehicle at four-thirty.