Banana Split

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “I need a housekeeper, not a desk girl.”

  “Mandi’s overqualified for housekeeping,” Bets said. “Can’t the new girl do housekeeping?”

  Mandi?

  “Don’t you mean she won’t do housekeeping?” he asked. “She’ll live off you but won’t lower herself to being a maid?”

  “She’d do a good job,” Bets said in a pouty tone.

  Silence.

  “Jim, please,” Bets said softly.

  “Even if I offered her the job, she’d only take it because it would mean she could stay close to him,” Jim countered. “Too close. It won’t solve your problem, Bets, just like it didn’t last time. You know I want to help you, but this won’t fix it.”

  It was all coming together. Bets had come to Jim for help with Noelani; now she had another woman to get out of her house. Was it a coincidence that with Noelani gone, Bets thought she had somewhere for Mandi to go?

  “We just need some time together, alone,” Bets said. Her voice started moving away again, and Sadie leaned toward the window in hopes of hearing it as long as possible. “I’m sure that . . .”

  Biscuits, Sadie thought when Bets’s voice turned back to soft murmuring tones.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Jim said, interrupting her a few seconds later. “Why don’t you move into the motel? That will send a message he might actually listen to.”

  “Jim,” she said, back in range. From the tone of Bets’s voice, Sadie wondered if that was an offer he’d made before.

  “Look,” Jim said, sounding frustrated. “I’ve got a charter in ten minutes, and the boat’s not ready yet thanks to some busybody hijacking my morning about your husband’s last girlfriend.”

  It had been so long since someone had called Sadie a busybody that she almost forgot it was an insult. Bets said something Sadie couldn’t hear.

  “She said she’s trying to figure out what happened to Noelani,” he said. “I checked out the video from last night, and she talked to Ashley and then Kiki this morning. I told Kiki she’s not allowed to say a word.”

  Bets murmured something.

  “Of course not, and I told her to leave, but not before I figured out she didn’t know anything. She’s just fishing.”

  Bets spoke again, but her voice was coming closer, and Sadie strained to hear what she was saying.

  “—want everything about that woman to go away.”

  Was she talking about Sadie or Noelani?

  “What if she’s undercover or something?” Bets asked.

  “She’s not,” Jim said confidently.

  The silence in the office increased Sadie’s tension, and she leaned forward until her ear touched the cool stone of the building. Why would Bets worry about the police asking questions unless she had something to hide?

  “I just want to forget any of it happened,” she said again.

  “She thinks someone knocked off Noelani,” Jim said.

  “What?” Bets asked, the panic in her voice taking Sadie off guard. “Why would she think that?”

  “We didn’t get to that part,” Jim said.

  “Why can’t she just go away?” Bets said, a hint of emotion in her voice.

  “She’ll be gone soon,” Jim said. “Checkout is at eleven.”

  “I wasn’t talking about her,” Bets said. “I meant Noelani. What does it take to get her out of my life?”

  Silence fell, and Sadie didn’t dare breathe for fear of being overheard.

  “I’d be careful who you say that kind of thing to,” Jim said. “And maybe you should—”

  A hand clamped around Sadie’s arm, and she jumped and gasped simultaneously, hitting her head against the windowsill in the process. There was no way Jim and Bets hadn’t heard her. She didn’t get a chance to see who’d grabbed her before she was pulled around the corner. The hand on her arm released her as she stumbled to a stop, and she turned to look into Kiki’s face for a quick second before the girl slid a card into the lock of the room they were closest to. She pushed open the door, pulled Sadie inside with her, and closed the door.

  “Wait here for five minutes, then leave. Check out as soon as you can. Jim will only make this harder for both of us if you stick around. I’ll call you when I can, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  Sadie opened her mouth to reply, but Kiki had already darted out the door, letting it slowly close behind her and leaving Sadie alone in a darkened motel room.

  Chapter 28

  Sadie followed Kiki’s advice and waited exactly five minutes—which was about how long it took for her heart rate and breathing to return to normal. After peering outside and making sure the coast was clear, Sadie left the room and hurried to her own door. Only when she got there, she realized she’d left her key inside her room when she’d gone after Bets.

  Biscuits!

  There was nothing to do but get a new key, so she headed toward the office, hoping Jim wouldn’t be there. She let out a breath when she walked in to find him talking to Kiki behind the counter. Didn’t he have a charter?

  They both went quiet when Sadie entered. Jim glared at her; Kiki’s jaw tightened. The door to his office was open, showing the room was empty. Bets must have left while Sadie was waiting those five minutes.

  “I locked myself out of my room,” Sadie said. “Could I get a new key?”

  “Do you have your ID?” Jim asked, crossing his arms over his chest and looking smug.

  “No, I left my bag—and my key—inside the room.”

  “We can’t issue a new key without ID.”

  Kiki looked from him to Sadie in surprise but took a step backward, physically distancing herself from the confrontation.

  “You know who I am,” Sadie said evenly.

  He shrugged. “It’s policy. Sorry. We can’t issue a new key without ID to prove you’re the registered guest on record.”

  Sadie narrowed her eyes at him and looked at Kiki, who was looking at something on the desk. The girl tucked her hair behind her ear with forced casualness. She would be no help. Sadie took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was sincerely humble. “Please let me into my room, Mr. Bartley.”

  “Like I said, without ID, I can’t issue a key.” He couldn’t have looked more pleased with himself.

  “Look,” Sadie said, leveling him with an annoyed stare. He knew she’d been listening in on his conversation with Bets. That was the only explanation. He knew and he was punishing her for it. “Just let me get my things, and I’ll get out of your hair.”

  Jim made an exaggerated effort to look at his watch. “Oh, look at the time. I’ve got a charter. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

  Sadie’s blood began to boil. “You’re seriously going to keep me out of my own room? Checkout is at eleven. I’ll . . . I’ll call the police.”

  “Go for it,” he said. “But they’ll have to wait for me to get back from the charter to tell my side of it.” He turned to Kiki. “You are not authorized to let her into her room or to make her a new key. Tell the police they have to wait for me if she calls them, but I bet she doesn’t want them to know she’s been asking about Noelani. We’ll figure this out when I get back.”

  He headed for the main door. Sadie was taken off guard by his assessment of her not wanting to call the police, which was dead-on. But she had to get in her room; her phone and computer were in there. The only thing she could think to do was follow him out. He walked fast, and she had to almost jog to keep up with him, her slippahs slapping the sidewalk. “You can’t do this!” she yelled at him.

  “Sure I can,” he said over his shoulder. “I own the motel. What’s more, any employee you talk to for any reason will be fired—that’s what I was explaining to Kiki just now. She’ll be passing that message on to the employee who takes over for her at two o’clock. I’d hate to fire them over something stupid you do. Gainful employment can be hard to find around here.”

  Sadie stopped walking, realizing that a power struggle with him would n
ever work. When he noticed she wasn’t following him, he faced her, looking pleased with himself.

  “You must be really afraid of what I’m going to find out,” she said.

  His eyes narrowed, but he raised his chin in defiance.

  “Go ahead,” she said, growling low in her throat and shooing him toward the gate. “Go do your little charter and then come back and see what’s happened while you were gone.” She turned on her heel, heading back toward the office.

  She wanted to look back—she really, really wanted to—but she didn’t. Instead she marched past the main office and stopped at her room, looking at the lock. She’d read up about apps that could copy the IP address of an electronic lock and disable it long enough for her to get inside, but she’d never tried it. Her phone was in the room anyway. She sighed. Even if this was a traditional lock, she’d left both her pick gun and her manual pick set at the condo, which she had locked up tight, anxious about her safety. The keys to the condo were in her bag. She was locked out of everything.

  “This is ridiculous,” she muttered. She found herself staring at the main office and took a deep breath to center her thoughts. Gayle’s flight landed in an hour; how would she know where to go? Sadie had assumed she’d be able to communicate with her when she got in.

  “Ridiculous,” Sadie muttered again as she tried to figure out the back way Bets had used to get to the church. However, she got all turned around and eventually had to go back to the motel, out front, and walk to the church the same way she had the night before. She needed to call Gayle and leave a message for her to meet her at the motel. And she needed to call Pete to find out if she could call the police about what Jim had just done without having to divulge what she was doing there. Would they really make her wait until Jim got back before they would let her get her things? The sun was up, and the heat was rising with every minute. Surely Pastor Darryl would let her use the phone to call Gayle and Pete, though it was an overseas call.

  Sadie had just reached the parking lot of the church when she saw a little boy slip inside the double doors of the church. A familiar little boy.

  Charlie?

  The surprise of seeing him caused her to jolt to a stop and forget all about stupid-head Jim Bartley—well, almost. It wasn’t yet ten in the morning, and her day had been hijacked for the second time.

  Chapter 29

  Sadie hurried across the parking lot and carefully opened the front doors of the church so as not to make a sound. She tiptoed across the threshold onto the white marbled floor of the foyer, quickly surmising she was alone. Everything was white—floor, walls, ceiling—except for the colored light that shined through a stained glass window set high above the door. The way the light played on the marble was beautiful, but Sadie didn’t have time to fully appreciate it. She didn’t hear the slap of slippahs in the hallway, so she moved toward the double doors directly across the foyer area, assuming they led into the chapel area. She pulled the door open carefully.

  Her eyes were immediately drawn to the dark-haired boy in a light blue shirt and khaki shorts walking purposefully down the aisle. The chapel was mostly white as well, but with dark red upholstery on the cushions and black trim on the top of the pews. Simple and striking at the same time. At the front of the room was a large black cross set against the wall—the only adornment in the room. Sadie used her fingertips to allow the door to close gently behind her and noted the sound of the air conditioner that created a good amount of white noise.

  At the front of the chapel was a raised platform the width of the room and about twenty feet deep with a pulpit pushed to the right. Sadie imagined the stage area would fit a Christian band or choir quite nicely; that kind of thing was popular in some churches, or so Shawn had told her after attending one with a roommate.

  Charlie climbed the stairs to the stage, intent on reaching the cross on the back wall. The bottom of the cross came to his waist, and Sadie noticed a paper or envelope in his hand. As she watched, he lifted the paper, held it with both hands for a moment, then folded it in half and seemed to feed it into the bottom of the cross. A moment later, he stepped back, his hands empty.

  Sadie felt her eyebrows raise. What had just happened? She’d no sooner thought it, however, than Charlie turned around. In the moment before he realized she was there, she saw peace and confidence in his expression. Whatever he’d just done had brought him some kind of comfort.

  “Hi, Charlie,” Sadie said, quietly. It felt appropriate to speak softly in this room.

  Charlie froze and stared at her, looking scared and ready to run, except that she was blocking the only exit. Actually, there was a door set into the other side of the room, near the stage, but it was closed, and she wasn’t sure Charlie had noticed it since it seemed to be designed to blend into the wall.

  Rather than confront him about what he was doing here and why he wasn’t in school, Sadie walked about a third of the way down the aisle and sat on the end of one of the pews. She shifted her gaze from him to the cross and said a little prayer for help to know what to do with this sad little boy.

  She didn’t say anything else to Charlie, but could feel him waiting for her to. After almost a minute, Charlie walked off the stage and headed down the aisle. Sadie purposely kept her eyes on the cross but could see him getting closer and closer, edging to the far side as though she might jump out and grab him. He passed her, but she still didn’t speak, though she questioned her judgment. Should she stop him? If she wanted him to trust her, she couldn’t take a position of offense. He needed to come to her and that would only happen if she presented herself as trustworthy.

  She waited for the sound of the doors being opened, but didn’t hear anything. The air conditioner kept up a steady hum, though she thought she’d hear the door over the white noise since she was listening so intently. Almost another full minute passed in utter silence before she heard him slide into the pew behind her. She contained the smile that pulled at the edges of her mouth, but just barely.

  “It’s sure peaceful here,” Sadie said, when she couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

  Charlie didn’t answer.

  “Do you come here a lot?” she asked after several seconds passed.

  “Every day,” a man answered, causing Sadie to startle and turn quickly in her seat.

  Pastor Darryl grinned at her with his bright white teeth.

  She looked past him, her face hot with embarrassment, but Charlie wasn’t there. She looked back at Pastor Darryl and cleared her throat. “I, uh . . . thought you were someone else,” she said, feeling ridiculous.

  “Who, I wonder?” Pastor Darryl said, still teasing her.

  “Never mind,” Sadie said. She glanced at the door again. How had Charlie left so quietly?

  “My next appointment isn’t for thirty minutes, so your timing is exceptional. Why don’t we take this into my office?”

  Sadie followed him down the aisle, casting one last look around the chapel, before going through the hidden door by the stage area. The door led into a small office decorated in neutral shades of browns. Nice, but simple. Fitting for his position. There was another door on an adjacent wall that she assumed led to the hallway. Probably so he didn’t have to go through the chapel to get to his office. Instead of sitting behind his desk, Pastor Darryl sat in one of the upholstered chairs across from it and indicated for her to do the same in the other chair. When she sat, their knees were nearly touching.

  “So,” he said. “Where would you like to start?”

  Sadie didn’t even know. What was it she’d wanted to learn from him? Why was she here? Thoughts about her locked motel room and Charlie’s surprising appearance followed by his even more surprising disappearance twisted up in her mind until she couldn’t find a way to fit Pastor Darryl into her thoughts. She needed to call Pete, and she needed to leave a message for Gayle. Should she tell Pastor Darryl his wife was meeting with Jim Bartley behind closed doors?

  “I want to understand Noelani,”
Sadie said as though from rote memory. “Can you just tell me about her?”

  He smiled, kind and understanding, before launching into what he knew of Noelani’s past. Sadie’s notes were in her room, so she tried to concentrate on what he said. Most of it she’d heard before from her own searches or from Mr. Olie, though she liked Pastor Darryl’s compassionate version. It was difficult to think of him having an affair with Noelani, but Jim’s inference and Bets’s insecurity were hard to ignore. She didn’t have a clue how to bring it up, however, so she listened and nodded and tried to think of what she needed from Pastor Darryl that no one else could give her.

  “I understand she was having a difficult time the last few weeks,” Sadie said, remembering that Jim had said Darryl had been following Noelani around the motel. “You were counseling with her?”