Blood like the Setting Sun: A Murder on Maui Mystery

by Robert W. Stephens

  I finally went back inside the house and walked to my bedroom. I sat on the bed and turned on the television. Believe it or not, that cooking competition show was still going. I watched it for all of sixty seconds before I flipped it off. I lay on my back for a few minutes and then rolled over to my side. I looked down at the floor and saw Maui the dog sleeping. His tiny chest rose and fell as he breathed in and out. Then I heard my cell phone vibrate on the nightstand. I looked at the clock beside it. It was almost eleven o’clock.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “It’s me,” Alana said.

  “You okay?” I asked. Her voice sounded rough.

  “Yeah, just beyond exhausted. I’m still at the office, believe it or not.”

  “I believe it,” I said. “How did it go with Barry?”

  “It was a complete waste of time. I got next to nothing out of him. He was at the marketing conference in Honolulu for the last week. Bethany didn’t go because she wasn’t feeling well. He showed me a hotel receipt to prove he was there. He also showed me his boarding passes, both for the flight out there and the return flight.”

  “The guy came prepared. I guess he thought you were going to try to pin this on him,” I said.

  “I assume so, but I don’t know why. I never even hinted at it.”

  “What did Mara say?” I asked.

  “Not much. Once she realized we weren’t going to charge him, she stayed pretty quiet.”

  “Did you ask him if he thought it might be suicide?”

  “Of course. He said his wife had been depressed about her mother’s and brother’s deaths, but he never thought she’d want to take her own life.”

  “Interesting that he would make a point to bring up Joe, considering neither he nor Bethany were at the funeral,” I said.

  “Exactly. Makes you wonder how upset she really was,” Alana said.

  “I’m guessing it was an act, at least the Joe part. It wouldn’t look good to say she hadn’t cared a damn about him. What about the pills?”

  “Their family doctor recently prescribed them. He said Bethany was having trouble sleeping after Charlotte died.”

  “What about the note?” I asked.

  “He wasn’t sure what she was referring to either.”

  “And Olivia? Was she there?”

  “She showed up right as we were finishing with Barry. Mara stayed for her interview as well.”

  “How did she appear?” I asked.

  “She cried, not sobs, mind you, but she definitely reacted more than her father did. She also said she didn’t know her mother was depressed enough to take her own life, but neither of them had any idea who would want to hurt her.”

  Alana and I spoke for a few more minutes. There really wasn’t much she had to go on at that point. A murder or a suicide? It was anyone’s guess.

  The autopsy was done the next day. The medical examiner confirmed what Alana already suspected. Death was caused by Bethany swallowing a large dose of Estazolam.

  Alana had the fingerprints on the glass compared to Bethany’s. They matched, and there were no other fingerprints on it. The fingerprints on the ammunition clip matched Barry. He told Alana that he didn’t remember the last time he cleaned the weapon, and it didn’t make sense to him that there wouldn’t be fingerprints on the handle as well. He also told her that he and Bethany used to fight over him having the gun in the house, especially in the bedroom where they slept. He said she was terribly afraid of guns and didn’t see any reason for them to have one since they lived in a nice neighborhood. The police had a cause of death but still no answers.

  All Alana and I really knew for sure was that of the four immediate members of the Chambers family that had been alive when I first got this assignment from Mara, three were now gone. I thought about Charlotte’s original will. Did the death of Joe and Bethany mean everything would go to Mill? I didn’t know if the will had even been entered into probate. For that matter, I wasn’t even sure if Joe’s fake will had actually been declared fake. Money might be a trivial concern when one compares it to the importance of a human life, but there were millions of dollars at stake, and I didn’t know if that had anything to do with Bethany’s death.

  I went to Bethany’s funeral. The same minister who did Charlotte’s and Joe’s funeral was there. He continued his paint-by-numbers approach when describing her life and how much she would be missed by friends and family. He listed her numerous accolades. Among them, Bethany had been a successful marketing manager for one of the top hotels on Maui. Not according to her mother-in-law, I thought, but no one wants to tell the truth about someone at her funeral. She was a mediocre employee, and she wasn’t particularly nice to others. Yeah, that would never fly, but it sure would make these things more entertaining.

  Unlike the days of the previous two funerals, the weather was threatening to rain. The sky was a dark gray, and the air felt oppressive and sticky. I’d broken out the dark suit for a third time this month. I’d definitely have to get it dry-cleaned again.

  Mill and his wife, Jen, attended the funeral. Apparently, their boycotting of funerals only extended to Joe Chambers. I didn’t see their twin sons, and I found their lack of attendance tacky at best. It’s an easy flight from San Francisco to Maui. Were they really that busy?

  Barry and Olivia sat in the front row, just a few feet from the casket. Barry’s face looked like stone. I couldn’t tell if he was angry, sad, dismayed, depressed, all of the above, or none of the above. Olivia was beside him. She held a handkerchief and kept dabbing it at the corners of her moist eyes.

  The overall attendance was much higher than the funeral for Joe, but there were far less people than the one for Charlotte. I was told there would be no wake after the service. The family, apparently, wanted to be alone.

  The rain finally started to come down. At first, it was more of a sprinkle. The minister sped up his service, but we were all still drenched when the rain clouds fully opened toward the end. Everyone, except Barry, scattered for their cars. I also walked back to my car but didn’t drive away. Instead, I sat there and watched Barry. He never left his seat in the front row, despite the heavy rain.

  Olivia had driven separately, which I found a bit odd. I knew from previous funerals I had attended where a family member had died that the families tended to pile together in one or two cars. Sometimes a limousine or town car was even rented, but Olivia apparently had driven herself, as had her father. Did that mean anything? I wasn’t sure.

  I drove around the cemetery and picked a spot where I could see Barry’s car in the distance. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice mine. The rain continued to fall hard for at least another hour. Barry still hadn’t left his seat by the casket. Finally, after the rain let up and the clouds started to part, I saw Barry stand and walk to his car. He climbed inside and drove off.

  I couldn’t begin to imagine his misery. His wife was gone. All of their plans were gone too. I’m sure he didn’t know what he’d do or how he’d move forward with his life. And what about Olivia? How would this tragic loss alter her course?

  I drove back to Bethany’s gravesite and parked my car. I got out and walked up to the temporary grave marker. It was several feet from Charlotte’s. I walked over to her gravestone. She and Millard Chambers shared one of those larger stones that had both of their names on it. The last name, Chambers, was large and at the top and center of the marker. Millard’s name and date of birth and death were on the left side, and Charlotte’s was on the right. I walked another several feet and saw Joe’s gravestone. Despite him feeling like an outcast, he was now fated to lie beside the rest of the clan for eternity.

  I thought back to Joe’s funeral and having seen Trevor Edelman there. He hadn’t come to Bethany’s, which was certainly no surprise. I’d watched Trevor walk away and head across the cemetery after Joe’s service. Trevor had stopped at a particular gravestone, but I was too far away from him to read it.

  I headed in the same direction. I remember
ed the gravestone he’d looked at was close to a tree. I found that tree easily enough, but it took me several more minutes of looking at various graves before I found one with the name Edward Edelman on it. I looked at the two gravestones on each side of Edward’s. They belonged to men, but they had different last names, definitely not brothers or a father to Edelman. Maybe they were cousins from a mother who married and took another last name. Maybe they were strangers.

  I then noticed that Edward Edelman’s gravestone didn’t have the name of his wife. Trevor had said she had died when he was a small child. I’d have thought she and her husband would have been buried together. I walked around and looked for her gravestone. I couldn’t find her name anywhere. In fact, I couldn’t find any other marker with the last name of Edelman. Edward, it seemed, was all alone.

  I called Alana and checked in with her. They’d made no progress on Bethany’s case beyond what I’d detailed to you earlier, and she said she thought the district attorney was probably going to rule it a suicide. There just wasn’t any evidence to support murder. Bethany’s fingerprints were the only ones in the room, except for Barry’s on the odd item like the paperback, the television remote, and some of the metal handles on the cedar chest. The nine millimeter belonged to Barry, but he was on another island when the death occurred.

  The next day I couldn’t stop thinking about Edward Edelman’s gravesite. I know that may sound strange. I just didn’t understand why I hadn’t been able to find Trevor’s mother’s grave. I realized, too, that I didn’t even know her first name. I wanted to ask Trevor about it, but I knew I’d be crossing a line and come across as a borderline stalker of the Edelman family. Maybe I was. I’d be lying to you if I didn’t admit I was a bit freaked out by my own curiosity.

  I did multiple Google searches for Edelman, combining it with key words, such as Hawaii, Maui, Chambers Hotel, and Millard Chambers. Not much turned up, and there was no mention of Edward’s wife in any of the searches.

  I decided to search for Edward Edelman’s marriage license or Trevor Edelman’s birth certificate. The birth certificate seemed like it would be way harder to get. The few websites I found required you to order the birth certificate after entering your personal information, so I spent most of my energy on the marriage license.

  I went to the local library and asked if they had digital copies of old issues of the local paper. Their digital records didn’t go back very far, but they suggested I go to the city-clerk’s office. Again, the rare name of Edelman worked in my favor, as did my slipping one of the clerks a hundred bucks to help me out. The clerk told me he viewed it as a personal challenge to find such an old marriage license, and he’d recently forgotten his wife’s birthday. He was going to use my money to take her out to a nice restaurant and hopefully get out of the proverbial dog house. The clerk was able to eventually find a scanned copy of the license. The wife’s name had been Rebecca Acker.

  I thanked the clerk profusely and went home to do a Google search on Rebecca Edelman. I got nothing, though, so I tried Rebecca Acker, along with the word Hawaii. That was when everything changed.

  I clicked on the top hit; it was a link to an article in the Honolulu Star Advisor. According to the article, a Ms. Rebecca Acker recently donated one-million dollars to renovate an arts center on Oahu. The center had been founded twenty years before and was dedicated to promoting the art and culture of the native Hawaiian people. There was also a color photograph of Ms. Acker. Judging by her appearance, she was old enough to be the mother of Trevor Edelman.

  I hit the backspace button on the monitor and reviewed the other hits from my search. I spent the next hour going through most of them. There were no references to Edward Edelman or Trevor Edelman, but there were plenty of articles about the philanthropy of the Acker family. From what I could gather, they made their fortune in farming sugar cane.

  I ended my Internet session and walked outside to the pool to get some fresh air and soak my feet in the warm water. Was it possible that the Rebecca Acker I found on the Internet was the same person who married Edward Edelman? If so, why would Trevor lie about his mother being dead when she was very much alive on Oahu?

  Chapter 18

  Patricia

  A month passed. I didn’t do anything with the knowledge that Trevor Edelman had lied to me. I guess I could have confronted him about it, but what would have been the point? I did tell Alana about the discovery that Rebecca Acker was still alive. She also couldn’t come up with a reason why Trevor had hidden the truth. I did my best to forget about it, but there was something about the bizarre little mystery that made it keep popping up in my mind from time to time. Then I’d think about it for a few more minutes and tell myself to drop it again.

  The cold case of Charlotte Chambers’ murder had officially turned frozen. In my imagination, which is often too vivid, I saw Alana placing the Charlotte Chambers’ files into this proverbial cardboard box and then carting it into a government warehouse where it would collect dust and never be opened again. It made me sick to think the killer had gotten away with it. I still remembered the sight of Charlotte floating in her swimming pool. I’d turned the backyard lights on and saw the blood swirling and twirling around her lifeless body.

  Alana and I had fallen back into our normal routine. I did my thing during the day, such as it was, and we’d meet up sometime after her shift ended. We spent about half the week at her house and the other half at Foxx’s. I guess you could say we were in the comfort zone as far as relationships go.

  There wasn’t much more to report regarding Foxx and Hani. Foxx still refused to talk about her. I shouldn’t really say he refused. It wasn’t like I asked him questions, and he told me to get lost. He just never brought her up, and I didn’t either. I actually only saw Hani once that month. She showed up at Alana’s house when I was over. We spoke for a couple of hours, and then she left. She hadn’t brought up Foxx either. I asked Alana if she knew anything, and she said she didn’t. I admitted that I didn’t know anything either.

  One afternoon Alana called me and invited me for sushi at her favorite place which happened to be near her office and the airport. I was actually pretty bored, so I decided to head over to Harry’s first, which was on the way to the sushi place. I was fairly surprised to see Patricia when I entered the bar. She was sitting in a corner booth by herself. I walked over to say hello.

  “Hey there,” I said. “I thought you were moving back to California.”

  I’d made the comment right as she took a large bite of her hamburger. She held up one finger.

  “Sorry. Yeah, that was the plan, but I ended up getting a job offer and decided to stay on Maui,” she said.

  “Oh, where are you working now?” I asked.

  “With Olivia Williams at her wedding-planning company. I met her at the funeral, and we got to talking about her business. She said she was really getting busy and had thought about hiring someone to help out.”

  “How are things going there?”

  “Good. Really good. The business has taken off. She’s already talking about maybe bringing on a third person.”

  “You must stay really busy then,” I said.

  “Totally. I barely have time to eat. Her office is just a few blocks from here. If I’m lucky, I can just squeeze in a tight run over here. I usually call ahead, so they can have the food ready by the time I get here.”

  “That’s smart. When you see Olivia again, please tell her I said thanks again for the advice she gave me.”

  “Are you planning a wedding?” Patricia asked.

  “Not exactly. I asked her for recommendations on a jeweler. She gave me the name of a guy, but I haven’t had a chance to see him yet.”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  “Did you know Olivia before Charlotte’s funeral?” I asked.

  “No, she never came over to the house, at least not when I was there, but I wasn’t at Charlotte’s day and night.”

  “I still can’t believe
she’s gone,” I said.

  “It’s so sad,” Patricia said.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to your lunch, or is it dinner?”

  Patricia looked at the time on her cell phone.

  “I guess I’m somewhere in between.”

  “Take care, and please tell Olivia I said hello.”

  “I will.”

  I walked over to the bar and ordered a beer. I could see Patricia’s reflection in the mirror behind the bar, so I saw her when she stood and waved goodbye to me. I turned around and waved back. I finished my beer and paid the tab.

  I was a little early meeting Alana at the sushi restaurant, a lot early, actually. I parked the car and walked under a tree near the parking lot to get some shade. I pulled out my cell phone and logged onto Facebook. I had an account but hardly ever used it. I typed Patricia’s name into the search bar and found her account. She hadn’t turned on the privacy settings. I searched through her contacts and discovered she was listed as a friend of Olivia Williams, not surprising considering they now worked together. I then clicked on Patricia’s photos and saw she had over a thousand. I closed the web page and slipped the phone back into my pocket. I wasn’t about to attempt to go through that many photos on my phone while sitting under a tree.

  I thought about my conversation with Patricia. Did I find it realistic that she’d never met Olivia before the funeral? Maybe. Olivia had told me she hadn’t seen her family much since starting the wedding company. I’d never run my own company before, but I guessed it was extremely time-consuming, especially if she was the only employee. Maybe she only saw her grandmother on the occasional weekend, and maybe Patricia didn’t work weekends.