The Scent of Waikiki (Trouble in Paradise Book 9)

by Terry Ambrose

  There was nothing unusual in the jewelry box. With the exception of a couple of articles of men’s clothing, this was turning into a big, fat nothing. I took a photo of the open box and closed the lid, then picked up the business card that had fallen over. It was from Club Mystique. On the back, written in a flowing cursive script, was a phone number. I took photos of the card, front and back, then replaced it and went to the bathroom.

  I wasn’t sure if ignoring all those boxes on top of the armoires was a good idea or not, but going through them could take all day. With the perfume debacle still fresh in my…well, nose, I decided to skip the rest of the bedroom and look for medications in the bathroom. The medicine cabinet was also standard apartment issue. The mirrored door hung ajar because the magnet had given out. Taking in a deep breath and wishing myself luck, I opened the cabinet.

  All Angela had in her medicine cabinet was the usual bathroom paraphernalia. It was a collection of nothing. No drugs of any kind. The cops might have taken those, of course. And on the counter, the toothbrush holder held only one toothbrush.

  I winced. If Joseph had been staying over, he must have either brought along his toothbrush or returned home before work—unless he decided to skip the bathroom prep the next day. He was a rough kind of guy, but, yeesh. Deflated by my lack of success, I returned to the bedroom. Other than the bed, what was the one place in this room Angela would have used most? The makeup stand. I went back for another look.

  As I stared down at it, Chance poked his head into the room again. “Find anything?”

  “A man’s All Day Delivery work shirt and a pair of pants. Oh, and a business card from Club Mystique. It had a phone number written on the back.”

  “Do you have the card?”

  “I got a picture of it. Both sides. No sign of any medications for anything. You?”

  Chance shook his head. “Nothing. You think the cops grabbed the meds?”

  “Could be. Who knows how closely they’re looking at this. There’s nothing here, Chance. It’s so weird.”

  “What’s that smell?” Chance asked as he sniffed. He leaned toward me and sniffed again. “McKenna, what have you been doing?”

  “Is it that strong?” I winced and sniffed a couple of times. I’d been so overpowered by the initial spritz, I hadn’t realized the scent still lingered.

  “You’ll be okay. It’ll fade.”

  “Let’s hope so. The last thing I need is to go running around smelling like a bouquet of flowers.” I returned to the closet and pulled out the shirt. “This is all there was.” I stopped and looked closely at the pocket which contained a piece of paper that had been folded in half. “What’s this?”

  Chance leaned over my shoulder and watched as I opened it. “It’s a prescription for…something,” he muttered. “Can you read it?”

  “Not that writing. All I can tell is that its for Joseph Sato. I wonder if there’s more of his stuff here.”

  Just then, my phone chirped. I handed Chance the shirt and the prescription and looked at the screen. When I saw the time, I freaked out. “Oh, crap,” I hissed. “It’s Benni, and I’m late for the appointment with Sarah the Chaplain.”

  CHAPTER 23

  How could I have forgotten the meeting with Sarah? This was important to my future wife. It was the last thing she’d reminded me about. I had to think fast and sound upbeat.

  “Hey, Benni, I’m on my way right now.”

  “McKenna, we were supposed to meet Sarah together and it’s time to leave. Where are you?”

  In the middle of breaking-and-entering didn’t seem like a very good response, so I chose something more generic. “Chance and I have been doing a little research on Grace’s case. Background stuff. I just got distracted. We can be there in…” I glanced at Chance who mouthed something and raised his eyebrows. This was not time to be playing charades. “Twenty minutes,” I said confidently.

  Chance shook his hands in front of him and mouthed something else. I turned away to finish the conversation. “I love you, too. See you then.” Turning back to Chance, I scrunched up my face and said, “What’s wrong with you? You said twenty minutes.”

  “No, I said, ‘where do you need to go?’ It was a question, McKenna.”

  “Oh. Well, my future is on your shoulders, buddy. If you can’t get me there, Benni will call off the wedding, I’ll become depressed, probably lose my job, and will have to come live with you.”

  Chance rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “I’d rather throw myself at Skye’s feet and beg for mercy. Tell me your tale of woe on the way. Which raises the question, where are we going?”

  “Sarah Shelton’s law office.”

  “Terrific,” Chance grumbled.

  We arrived only a few minutes late. The law office was located in one of those mixed-use business districts which allowed the age-old tradition of letting the owner use the home for both a business and residence. Sarah’s assistant ushered us straight into a small meeting room, which had once been an old parlor. Benni and Sarah sat at a small, round conference table and both glanced up as we entered.

  Sarah was in her early thirties, had blonde hair she let hang loose, and wore little makeup. She seemed relaxed, perhaps only slightly annoyed. Benni, however, looked like she was simmering. The muscles in her jaw flexed, and I steadied myself in preparation for the onslaught.

  “You’re late,” she snapped. “One appointment, McKenna. One!”

  Chance looked like he might actually try to come to my rescue, but Sarah reached out and laid a hand on Benni’s. She stood and crossed the room. As she approached, I realized how thin she was. Sarah was about five-ten and looked like a beanpole, skinny as could be. I’d heard she was a runner; worked out incessantly; and had two keiki, one of whom was in eighth grade and the other in fifth.

  She gave me a hug, then stepped back. With a smile, she gestured at the two open chairs. “Now,” she said with a lot of fanfare. “Shall we get started on the settlement terms?”

  I blinked at her and stammered, “What? I…thought we were going to be talking about the wedding.”

  Sarah gazed at Benni. “I believe my client has changed her mind.” She gave me a professional smile, then looked at Chance. “This must be your attorney. Are you here to work out the divorce settlement?”

  Divorce? We weren’t even married yet. My hands felt clammy and the room was spinning in crazy circles. “I was five minutes late.”

  Benni rushed across the room and wrapped her arms around me. When she pulled away, she peered at me and clasped my hands. “Are you okay? You’re white as a sheet.”

  “I was five minutes late,” I said absently as she guided me to the nearest chair.

  Sarah spoke in a high-pitched voice with the classic island lilt. “It looks like you two do love each other. So let’s go back to planning a wedding, shall we?” A moment later, she reached across the table and took my hand. “I’m sorry for the scare, Mr. McKenna. That wasn’t very nice of me.” She eyed me suspiciously, then turned to Benni and said, “Always remember that moment. This wedding is going to be a great deal of stress for you both and there will be many more little ups-and-downs, but if you hang onto each other you’ll come out stronger on the other end.”

  “I’m sorry,” Benni said. “I guess the stress is getting to me. The last thing I want to turn into is a bridezilla.”

  The room had stopped spinning, but the sick feeling in my stomach was still there. It once again made me realize how lonely I’d be if Benni left me for any reason. “I’ll be on time in the future. I promise.”

  “We’re good then,” Sarah said. “Now that we’ve broken the ice, so to speak, we have a lot to talk about.” She reached out to shake hands with Chance. “Sarah Shelton.”

  “Chance Logan. I’m McKenna’s friend and part-time driver.”

  Sarah winked. “Gotcha. Nice to meet you. Welcome.” She positioned a notepad in front of her and picked up a pen. “Now, I need to make some notes. Let’s
begin with what kind of ceremony you’d like to have.”

  Our meeting with Sarah rambled between the ceremony, our compatibility, and even touched on the sorest subject of all, our future living arrangements. Eventually, Sarah asked a question I’d never expected.

  “You’re the two who solved that big Honolulu Hottie case, aren’t you?”

  I nodded, definitely concerned about where this might be going. “We got lucky,” I said.

  “It sounded like more than luck.” She gazed at me with wide eyes and a large smile. “As an attorney, I have to ask. Did you have any legal repercussions?”

  “No, we never had any problems.”

  Sarah gazed at Chance. “I’m surprised. The way that turned out, I probably would have filed suit against you. After all, you do have substantial resources.”

  Chance’s jaw dropped and he cleared his throat. “We stayed within the law.”

  “I suppose that’s open to some amount of interpretation. And isn’t that what the law is all about?”

  What was this, an inquisition? A trial? “Sarah, why are you so interested in what we did a few months ago?”

  She looked down at her notepad. “Well,” she said as she doodled on the paper. “It had something to do with Island Passion. Right?” She put down her pen and held my gaze.

  The room was feeling suddenly warm. Where were these questions coming from? I regarded Sarah’s face, then Benni’s, hoping to make some sort of sense out of this sudden turn. That’s when I realized Benni had been staring at me for the last few minutes. Suddenly, she stood and came around the table so she was standing next to me. Benni’s brown eyes bore into mine.

  “Benni?” I asked.

  She huffed and the fine line of her jaw tightened. “What, McKenna?”

  Oh, crap. That didn’t sound good at all. “What have I done?”

  She glared at me. “That’s what I want to know. You smell like women’s perfume. Who have you been with? Has Chance been treating you to a last-minute fling? Is that why you were late?”

  “No! No, that’s not it at all.” I glanced at Chance, begging, pleading for help.

  “Sorry, McKenna, but the longer we sit here…it’s pretty overpowering.”

  Sarah reached out and again laid a hand on Benni’s. “I’m sure he has a good explanation. You’re just having wedding jitters. It happens all the time.” She turned her gaze on mine and raised an eyebrow. “You do have a good explanation. Yah?”

  Of course I did. I just had to think of what it was. Did I tell the truth? Or try to fake this? The latter was a sure path to failure. This would turn into a disaster.

  “I don’t know how much of this I should say in front of Sarah.”

  “Is this about Grace?” Benni asked.

  “Is this something I shouldn’t know about?” Sarah asked.

  “What were you doing, McKenna?” Benni added.

  “Do you need to discuss this with me out of the room?”

  The voice of authority came from my side. It was Chance. “Stop. Both of you. McKenna can only answer one question at a time. Sarah, in what capacity are you acting now? As minister or as an attorney?”

  She sat back in her seat and contemplated Chance with a steadfast gaze. “This sounds like it’s going in a direction that could create a conflict of interest for me.”

  To the kid’s credit, he looked right back at her without flinching. “You may be correct. However, I can assure you, what we’ve done is fully consistent with our intended purpose of helping McKenna’s tenant, Grace Takahashi.”

  “And no one was injured?”

  “Correct.”

  Sarah took in a slow breath and looked at me. “I’ve never had a client who put my two professions at odds. This is a difficult decision, and I’m not sure it’s one I want to make. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll let you all talk. Let me know when you’re ready to get back to the wedding plans.”

  She stood and left the room, closing the door behind her.

  I swallowed hard and looked across the table at Benni. Her anger was apparent. The question was, would it remain after I’d explained everything?

  It felt as though the walls were closing around me as the three of us sat there in silence. Outside the tall, skinny window, I saw the red spikes of a ginger plant. Crush the leaves and it released a beautiful scent. It seemed like such a destructive thing to do, but the flowers were resilient and recovered. I had to trust the same thing would happen now.

  “We went to Angela Keating’s apartment,” I said.

  Benni craned her neck forward and raised her eyebrows. “Why would you do a thing like that?”

  “Because we’re trying to get to the bottom of Grace’s problem. Angela was Skye Pilkington-Winchester’s assistant. Somehow, she seems to be linked to this. Benni, the girl fell from her second-floor lanai and died. This scam Grace got herself into—it’s about more than just a bottle of perfume.”

  “Wait a minute. I thought you said Grace fell for one of those work-from-home scams.”

  “That was where we started. You said you wanted me to look into it. To help Grace. Have you changed your mind?”

  “No. Yes. I don’t know what I expected. Grace made a mistake. How does that relate to some girl’s death?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Chance said. “What we do know is there are a lot of questions. This looks like a complex web.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you smell like women’s perfume.”

  I hung my head, then looked up at her. “I got carried away. You know me. There I was, looking down at her makeup table, and I started thinking about what she went through each day. I thought if I could understand what she did to get ready, I might understand her better. Maybe be able to figure out what she was involved in.”

  Benni’s lips parted and she stared at me for a moment. Finally, she said, “That’s so ridiculous it has to be true.” She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. “So you’re trying to find out who killed her.”

  “Nobody said anything about murder,” I said.

  “It seems to follow you around.” With a slight smile, she added, “Just like that perfume.”

  I winced as I tried to smell myself. “It’s pretty strong, isn’t it?”

  “You could use a shower, McKenna.” Chance winked at me.

  “Can we get back to business?” I asked, determined to ignore the comment.

  “After you answer one more question,” Benni said.

  Oh, God, now what?

  “Sure, what do you want to know?”

  CHAPTER 24

  Benni brushed her bangs to one side, let her eyes dart away from mine for a moment, then sighed. “It seems you’re keeping more and more from me. I’m feeling like you’re shutting me out. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  I blinked at her, unsure how she felt I’d done that. “I don’t understand.”

  “When we were on Maui, you promised you’d never keep secrets from me. Now you’re doing it all over again. You’re working this case. You won’t talk about it. McKenna, if you’re going to close me out, this will never work.”

  My breath caught as I realized how tightly her lips were drawn into a thin line of worry. Of course. How had I not realized I’d slipped into my old habits?

  I reached across the table, took hold of her hands, and felt my heart pounding in my chest. This was the moment. The one I’d never fully admitted to before. Taking a deep breath, I said, “I should be a member of Morons Anonymous. It never occurred to me I might be doing it. I’m sorry. I’ll give you every little detail now or later, just tell me when and where.”

  She sighed and shook her head as she gazed at me. “It has less to do with the details than it does with equality. We promised each other love and honesty. To me, that means sharing our lives—with no secrets.”

  “None?” I winced.

  “Maybe little ones, like if you think I look fat or something.”

  I snorted. “You? Fat?
No way.”

  “McKenna…” She glared at me.

  “Oh, I’m doing it, aren’t I? I think it’s a defense mechanism.”

  “You don’t need your defenses with me.”

  Her gaze was so earnest, her tone so calm, that I could do nothing but look away. The urge to unburden my soul was so strong I dared not say anything other than, “Whew, that’s heavy.”

  She frowned at me. “What?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. It’s something we used to say in the eighties. It still belongs there. What I meant was that’s one of the most moving things anyone’s said to me in a long time.”

  Chance shifted in his seat, fingered the line of his jaw. “Look, guys, I like this moment you’re having, but we have a problem. Sarah.”

  I shot a quick glance at the closed door. He was right. We had to deal with the Sarah issue. I also had to figure out if I could fulfill my latest promise to Benni. This was a murder investigation. Bringing her into it as an equal would put her into danger. And I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her and I was to blame.

  “Let’s get her back in here, finish up, then we can go grab some coffee or something.” I looked at Chance. “You’re buying, since you’re the one who got me into this.”

  “Me?” He planted a hand on his chest and peered at me with wide eyes. “How do you figure that?”

  With a simple movement of my hand, as though I were turning a lock in a key, he got it. He nodded, smiled, and went to the door.

  “I’ll get Lexie to join us,” he said as he opened it. “We both have some unburdening to do. Should I ask Sarah to join you?”

  “Yes,” we said simultaneously.

  At least we agreed on that.

  Chance started to leave, then poked his head back into the room. “Let’s all meet at Lulu’s when you’re done.”

  I gave him a thumbs-up, looked at Benni, and smiled. “I love you.”

  Her eyes misted over before she dropped her gaze to the tabletop. “I love you, too,” she grumbled.

  Sarah returned with a flourish. She’d combed out her hair and seemed more relaxed as she opened a blue notebook. “Now, let’s talk about the processional.”