“We wanted to ask you if there was anything that you remember from the weeks leading up to his death?”
He shook his head. “Not really.”
“He was using Premiere Connections, is that right?” Adam asked.
Mr. Cheng made a face. “He did for a few months, but then he stopped, oh about a week or two before his death. He was convinced it was a waste of time.”
“Why do you say that?” Marcus asked.
“Not sure. He did say he was fed up with the dates. They never seemed to go anywhere, and they always wanted to go out on his dime. Sam had a lot of money, and he didn’t mind spending it. But not one of those dates ever wanted to hang out at the beach or just take a nice drive. They always wanted him to spend, spend, spend.”
“Was that the only reason he was fed up?” Marcus asked.
Mr. Cheng shook his head. “No. The last few weeks before his death, he said he’d been getting some odd letters.”
“Letters?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, weird things. I thought it was odd they were coming in the mail. Kids his age are all texts or emails. Not with this woman though.”
“Did he say it was one of his dates?”
“No. I don’t know if he knew, but it was enough to stop him from using the service. In fact, about three days before he was murdered, he got a dozen roses delivered to one of the clubs where he was working. I think that freaked him out a little bit.”
“Did he say who they were from?” Adam asked, notating the dates down in his notebook.
Cheng shook his head. “Again, I don’t think he knew. Nothing else came, no more letters or flowers. Then, he was dead. I didn’t think to mention it when I talked to the police originally. It didn’t seem that important at the time.”
“No worries, Mr. Cheng,” Adam said as he shared a look with Marcus.
After a few more minutes of questioning, Adam and Marcus left Mr. Cheng with the promise they would let him know if anything turned up.
“So, what do you think?” Marcus asked. “It’s undoubtedly the first lead outside of Premiere Connections anyone has gotten in the case.”
Adam nodded. “We need to get hold of everyone else.”
“Okay, we have Charlie Xan. Does he have any family here?”
He shook his head. “They are living on the mainland now. I think after his murder, they just left. I have their number though. Then there’s the other guy. But his entire family lives on the mainland. Cat’s going to talk to Anderson’s sons as soon as they get in.”
“Let me guess, they live on the mainland?”
“No. I think they were over there for business, but she’s going to talk to them. Now that we have this info, we can see if their father had any issues before his death.”
“So, we possibly have a female stalker trolling Premiere Connections for her next victim?”
“Or it could be a guy. Could be a man who is so damned jealous of what is going on, that he stalks the male clients. Who knows?”
“At least we have a lead.”
“Finally.”
“Great, now, it’s my turn to pick the music.”
Adam groaned as Marcus turned the station from Island 98.5 to the country channel. It was an agreement they’d made earlier this year. Adam hated country music and Marcus hated Hawaiian music. Their split time of radio control had been the only thing that had kept them from arguing. There was a commercial and then some song came on. Twangy guitars filled the SUV.
“You weren’t raised right, man,” Adam said.
“If you can’t appreciate The Zac Brown band, you just don’t know good music.”
Adam rolled his eyes, and pulled onto the highway that lead back to the office. He could handle it, at least for the next thirty minutes.
Drew stepped off the elevator in the basement to head to Charity’s lab when his cell went off. The ominous sounds of Beethoven’s Fifth told him that it was his mother.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Hello to you. What are you doing?”
“I’m working.”
“Yes, but what are you doing today at work?”
He rolled his eyes as he pulled open the door to the lab. Charity smiled at him then cocked her head. He mouthed the word mother and Charity laughed.
“You know I can’t tell you about any ongoing investigations.”
“I didn’t want you to tell me anything that was classified.”
“I don’t have classified information, Mom. It’s just not out to the public yet.”
“I heard a few customers mention the Branson Anderson murder today.”
And she knew that TFH probably got the case. They were handed all the high-profile murders like this, and Anderson being the victim made it high profile. His mother was an invariable gossip. More than likely, she had customers asking her about it. Every regular who dined at their restaurants knew about his job. And if they didn’t, his mother told them. It was annoying and embarrassing just how proud she was of him.
“As I said, you know I can’t talk about an ongoing investigation. Besides, we don’t know much at this point.”
There was a beat of silence. “Okay. But since you can’t help me with that, why don’t you come to dinner this weekend?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. This was not a good sign. Since the shooting, his mother had stopped trying to set him up. Before, it had been horrible. Every able-bodied woman she deemed good enough for her son got pulled into an uncomfortable situation where his mother threw not so subtle hints throughout dinner. Worse, she’d used guilt to get him to attend. And he did, even knowing what was going to happen. In the last nine months, he had been given a reprieve, but apparently, Rose Franklin was done waiting.
“Like you said, we have a new case and I might be too busy.”
Another pause, and not a good sign. “Okay. But keep it in mind.”
He blinked, surprised by her easy acceptance. “Of course. Bye, mom.”
He hung up and looked at Charity, who was shaking her head.
“What were you lying about?”
“I wasn’t lying. I said that maybe I would be busy.”
She studied him as if he were one of the specimens sent up from the morgue. They had a sibling-like relationship, one that definitely gave them both the right to speak their minds.
“I’m just saying that I don’t want to be standing near you during a lightning storm. And if she asks me about it next time I see her, I’ll have to tell her the truth.”
“You are a traitor and I disown you. She’s up to something. I know it.”
“You act like she’s conspiring against you.”
Drew shook his head. “You have no idea. She could outmaneuver any general.”
She shook her head, then turned back to her computer. “What are you doing down here?”
“I came to see if you’d made any progress.”
“I always make progress, but on the case, one thing. HPD sent the files from the other three cases. We had some of it, but not the nitty gritty. I don’t know how they expected me to really know whether the cases were connected by the crappy files they sent over.”
He could tell from the gleam in Charity’s eye, she was ready to go on a rant. Usually, Drew enjoyed them, but for some reason, he wasn’t in the mood.
“But you found something, because you are the queen of forensics.”
She studied him, then smiled. “You know that’s right. I found similar fibers. Red silk, like a scarf or something.”
“Definitely linked?”
“Possibly, which is asinine on their part, because they should have already declared it a serial.”
“That’s odd.”
“It is, because it isn’t like them to let something like this slip. They have a good crew over there.”
“So, they’re connected?”
“As I said, possibly.”
“Possibly. I know that Del was upset that the FBI was trying to come and take over the case.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. I think they ironed it out though. And now, I’m stuck here looking at these,” she said motioning toward the monitor. “Emma had to get home. The babysitter had some kind of emergency.”
“I can help.”
“Are you sure?”
“We have nothing else to do, and Elle already went home. Still, there’s nothing to do unless we get called out.”
“Good deal.”
She set him up on another computer.
“Now, what are we looking for?” he asked as he brought up one of the CCTV recordings.
“Anything out of place. Someone driving erratically.”
They sat in silence as they looked over the video. “None of this is going to be conclusive.”
“I know, but it might give us a lead. Then that could lead us to at least a suspect.”
He nodded. “I always thought it was interesting that there were no cameras throughout Waimanalo and Kailua.”
She shrugged. “They don’t have them for Kam Highway and part of H-2 either. I’m sure it has something to do with the weather. Plus, there aren’t a lot of traffic signals there.”
“You know, there are a few convenience stores in that area. There has to be at least one that has some kind of security cameras.”
“Yeah, I checked and they are sending over the video. Our main problem is many of those places only hold them over for twenty-four hours, then record over existing footage. But we might find something.”
“That’s good.”
“How are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, without looking over at her.
“Don’t make me hit you.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. It isn’t like it’s a big deal.”
She didn’t say anything else, but he could feel her gaze on him.
He glanced over. “What?”
“It is a big deal. Neither of you have dealt with the issue at hand.”
He rolled his eyes. “Good lord, we have. We weren’t made for each other.”
“How do you know that?”
He hated when charity got chatty like this. It was annoying, and it made him think about his failed relationship with Cat.
“I thought you were still pissed at her.”
“Not really.”
“And, I know we aren’t for each other because she told me.”
“She said that?”
“Yes. Well, sort of. She told me she wasn’t made for a relationship. I’m not made for a woman who can’t even think of that possibility. I don’t expect marriage, or even living together, but if a woman can’t even fathom something serious with me after knowing me so long, I really don’t want to waste my time.”
She looked like she wanted to argue. If there was something that Charity was better at other than forensics, it was arguing. But, thankfully, she decided not to.
“How about we get this done and you come with me and TJ to dinner? We’re going to hit Honolulu Sushi for dinner.”
His first inclination was to say no. But, he had been spending too much time at home, and he hadn’t seen TJ since he had gotten back from the mainland.
“Sounds like a date.”
And maybe he could convince his mother that was exactly what it had been.
“All right, let’s get this done so we can meet him there,” Charity said with a smile.
He decided if they hurried, he might just avoid running into Cat again today. He could lie to Charity all he wanted, but there was no denying that when he had to be in the same room as Cat, he couldn’t think straight.
Maybe one day, he would learn to take her advice and forget they ever had a date, or a moment. But until then, he was doomed to suffer.
5
The next morning, Cat felt as if her ass was dragging across the floor. She’d had little-to-no-sleep because she’d been busy looking over the case files. Usually, it wasn’t that hard to do, but having three different detectives on the three different murders made it difficult. Each detective had their own style, and it took some time to get accustomed to it. Which meant that she had to reread reports over and over to get at their meanings. She could contact all three of them, but cops sometimes became overly sensitive when another law enforcement organization started to review their work. Even if they had done no wrong, they would assume the worst.
On top of that, the entire case was about to explode publically. People were already linking the other killings with this one and, after that, the tweets started to flow in. It would only take a few hours before the whole thing became a madhouse. It’s why she decided to have another organizational meeting that morning. She’d texted everyone early to let them know they needed to go over the evidence. It wasn’t something they always did, but she felt it was important. Del had agreed, from the text he sent back.
Her phone vibrated to tell her she had a text. She pulled it out of her pocket, and almost groaned aloud when she saw her mother’s face. She had avoided talking to family last night. There was some drama going on with her youngest sister, but there was always something going on with her youngest sister. If Cat stopped work every time her mother called about Marie, Cat would never get anything done.
If you do not text back, I will assume you are dead and call the police.
Her mother was completely ignoring the fact that Cat was an actual policewoman. It was her mother’s way of reminding Cat she didn’t like what she did for a living.
Cat had her head down as she pushed through the front door to the office. She walked into a solid wall of muscle. She dropped her phone and bit back a gasp as she looked up.
“Hey, careful,” Drew said.
It wasn’t his normal every day voice she was used to. It was the one she’d heard that night, the one that had tried to tempt her back to his room. Then she realized something else. Drew had muscles. Lots of them. He had always been kind of lean, but lately, Cat knew he had been working out. Charity had let it slip that her boyfriend, TJ, had been training Drew. It’d been easy to see he was busting out of some of his t-shirts, and the last six months had left him pretty bulked up. While she pretended to ignore Drew, Cat always had her ears open to hear about what he might be doing. Because she was pathetic like that.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, leaning down to pick up her phone.
As she rose up, she found him standing in the same spot. He was staring at her with the same expression that always made her lose most rational thought. It hadn’t always been that way. Now, though, she knew what lay behind that expression. After their first kiss, she understood the intense passion hidden beneath his cool surface.
“When’s the meeting this morning?”
Meeting? What meeting? Oh, right, work. That was all they talked about these days. “At the top of the hour.”
“Great. I need some coffee. I should be back in time.”
She said nothing, because she was still trying to get her mind to return to the conversation and not on the need to lean closer and touch…or lick. She could smell the ocean air on him; mixed with the deep, masculine scent that called to her. Still. She wanted to get closer, feel his hands on her flesh again.
“Are you okay, Cat?”
She blinked, bringing herself to the present from that side trip to her favorite fantasy. “Uh, yeah. Sorry. I was up late working.”
“Okay. Be back in a few.”
Then he was gone. She stood there for a second and tried her best to get her heartbeat under control. Heat crackled through her, and she wanted nothing more than to run after him just so she could be near him. It was always like this, and it was only getting worse. They had avoided each other easily before, but with her in charge of the case, it was going to be hard to do now.
“Hey, Cat,” Del said as he walked over toward her.
“Morning, boss.”
“You look tired. Don’t let this case get to you.”
“I was just trying to catch up.”
“Good deal. I hear tha
t Adam got some info for the meeting. He talked to a few of the victim’s friends, and he’s found a common thread.”
“Great.”
His cell rang and he pulled it out. The puzzled look on his face did not bode well. “Yes?”
Someone talked very rapidly on the other end of the line.
“Why, yes, I know your daughter, and she’s standing right here in front of me. No reason to call the real police.”
Oh, God, she was going to kill her mother. No jury would convict her with this kind of evidence, she was sure of it. Of all the embarrassing things her mother could do, this was right at the top of the list.
“No worries, Ms. Kalakau. Cat is busy with a big case. You can blame me for that.”
He listened for a second, then, “Yes, I understand family is important, but this is Cat’s first case as lead investigator. We’re all pretty proud of her.”
Great, now he sounded like her kindergarten teacher. Her mother always reduced people to trying to satisfy her every whim. It was one of the reasons Cat had moved out. She loved her mother, but she was a tiny little dictator who knew exactly how to turn the enemy into her puppets.
She motioned for Del to give her the phone, which he did.
“Here’s Cat. It was very nice talking to you.”
He handed her the phone. “Come to my office when you’re done. I want to talk to you about an idea I have.”
She nodded and took the phone. “Mom. You should never call my boss.”
“You didn’t answer. I thought you were dead.”
“Really? Because you don’t sound too sad about it.”
“I know you’re alive now. Before, I was panicked.”
More than likely irritated. “Is there something you needed?”
“It’s Marie.”
“Mom, it’s always Marie,” she said as she started walking toward Del’s office.
“She wants to get married.”
Cat stopped in her tracks. “What?”
“Your sister wants to marry that boy.”
She sighed. “Marie is twenty-two. Her boyfriend is twenty-five. You can’t stop them. They are old enough to make their own decisions and live with the consequences.”
There was a pause from her mother. “So, you will not help?”
Tangled Passions (Task Force Hawaii Book 4) Page 5