Chelsea began sobbing. “I did it for Stacia. She wasn’t supposed to get hurt. Those Connellys killed her. You should be arresting that whole family.” Her cries echoed against the marble in the lobby and bounced off the high ceilings.
I leaned in closer to try to discern what Chelsea was babbling about. She knew Stacia? My mind whirred with the sudden connections unfolding. If Chelsea was being arrested in conjunction with PFI’s illegal activities and she knew Stacia, did that mean Stacia was somehow involved with PFI?
Although she was still crying, and protesting loudly, Chelsea went with the officers. Several patrons stopped to watch the scene unfold. Minutes later, I witnessed the henchmen of Mrs. Harper being hauled off. Though I stood around for a good fifteen minutes, I never saw Mrs. Harper.
In all the commotion, Chelsea had left her computer on and logged into the events. I should have felt guilty, but the name of Stacia kept reverberating in my mind. With a few clicks, I was scrolling through Chelsea’s messages. There were several cryptic notes about events scheduled through Mrs. Amelia Harper. I minimized the window and searched to see if Chelsea was logged into anything else that would provide information. When I pulled up her email account, I hesitated for a second, but again, my fingers flew to the search bar of their own accord, typing in the name of Stacia. I bit down on the inside of my cheek when the search produced several emails from Stacia Fletcher. I scanned through two emails, each mentioning the upcoming rally and how they were going to change the world.
My heart hammered inside my chest as I selected a third email.
“Excuse me, Miss. Can I help you?”
I yelped and jumped from the chair startling the young man who had approached me. He wore a neatly pressed concierge uniform and stood with his back straight. “Uh, sorry. Chelsea was helping me but then she got arrested. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Yes, that was—er, uh, maybe I can help,” he stammered.
He started to come around the side of the desk, and I leaned down and minimized her email screen as I angled my body away from the computer. “Can you double-check that all events for the Wright/Connelly wedding have been canceled?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. That’s tough when someone waits until the last minute to bow out.”
I nodded. He thought I was just talking about cold feet. I guess I was, if those cold feet were at the bottom of Kauai’s ocean. Disaster didn’t seem to be a strong enough word to describe the past twenty-four hours.
“It’s been taken care of.” The young man typed on the keyboard and peered up at me. “Anything else?”
“No, thank you. I appreciate your help.”
I headed for Luke’s room and banged on his door.
“What? Is something wrong?” Luke swung the door open, and I stepped backward at the sight of his bare chest. His muscles were well defined and man, those delts. I was gaping, and I commanded myself to get a grip. Luke’s lips twitched. He motioned to his room. “Why don’t you come in?”
“Uh, okay, but just for a minute.” I followed him in as the door clicked behind me. Luke’s room was neat, and a similar setup to mine. He stepped over to a pair of chairs next to a TV and motioned for me to sit. I launched into my latest find. “Stacia/Charly wasn’t working for the GMOs. She was working for PFI, and she was planning to go to the rally. I need to call Officer Kinau, but I have to tell Jon, too, because I think this could be the line we need to get the police to look at someone else for her murder.”
“PFI. That’s the fanatic group against GMOs, right?” Luke stood and crossed to the balcony, pulling the curtains open wider.
“Yes, and that’s not all. The concierge here that’s been giving me a hard time—Chelsea—she was involved with them too. The police just arrested her.”
“Man, I keep missing all the excitement. I was just heading out for a swim.” Luke’s swim shorts hung low on his hips, and he tightened the drawstrings. “This vacation isn’t quite as relaxing as I thought it would be.”
“Uh—yeah, that’s part of the reason I stopped by. I need to go over to the Connelly’s house to talk to them. Heather called and left a message. She sounded pretty upset, and I want to help if I can.”
“Oh.” One corner of his mouth fell, but I appreciated the effort he was making not to scowl at me.
An awkward pause ensued in which I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t a big deal to ask him to use his rental car again.
“Are you here because you need another ride?”
My pride won over. “No. I’m going to get a rental. With the way everything has turned out, I’m going to need one for the rest of my stay here. Malia canceled all of the wedding events.”
“I know. She called me.”
“She did?”
“Yeah, she wanted to apologize for dragging me out here for nothing.”
“But, wait—they’ll still get married, won’t they?” My eyes burned with tears, and I swiped my hand across my face, blinking rapidly. Everything was falling to pieces. “Malia deserves happiness. I wish I could fix this mess.”
“Hey, none of this is your fault.” Luke knelt in front of me and placed a hand on my knee.
My breath stilled, and I saw the compassion in Luke’s face. My bottom lip trembled as I let out a shuddering sigh accompanied by a few tears streaking down my cheeks.
“Malia will be fine.” Luke spoke in a soft voice. “Kyle is still going to marry her, and I know they’ll be happy. It just won’t be the fancy affair they’d originally planned.”
I watched Luke’s chest move up and down with each breath as he knelt in front of me and clasped my hands. My emotions were out of control, and the room felt crowded. I stood abruptly and Luke stumbled back, but recovered and stepped next to me. “I hoped we could salvage it somehow, but I guess it’s too late.” When I made eye contact with Luke, I knew that he understood me. It made me feel vulnerable.
In a move that surprised me, Luke pulled me into an embrace—against his bare chest. I tensed, but my second thought was that this was where I wanted to be right now. My arms went around his torso, and I relaxed against him.
When he spoke, his chest rumbled against my ear. “It’s going to be okay. It sucks right now, but I think Malia will still get her happily ever after.”
My cheeks lifted with a smile as I remembered the wedding reception where I’d met Malia last summer. Luke had teased me about his cousin wanting to plan her wedding with Adrielle Pyper’s Dream Weddings: Where happily ever after is your destination.
The silence grew stronger, and Luke kissed the top of my head. If I tipped my head back two inches I’d be right in line with his lips. I couldn’t lie to myself—I wanted to kiss Luke—I’d wanted to kiss him last year, but every time we got close to this point he ran. Now it was up to me and as much as I enjoyed being close to him, I couldn’t do it. Not with Jon waiting for me and the dozens of unanswered questions I had about the murder and the future of our relationship, which all depended on the answers to those questions.
I stepped back and Luke released me. “Thanks for helping me so much today.” I didn’t miss the way his gaze flicked to my mouth and then back to my eyes.
“I’m glad to. Why don’t you let me give you a ride so you don’t have to worry about a rental?”
“That’s okay. I may as well take care of it now.”
“No, I insist. You’re upset. Let me help you.”
“I don’t want to ruin your night.”
“It’ll give me something to do. All my plans just got nixed.” Luke grabbed the car keys. “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the next three days.”
“Hmm, me either. That’s weird to think of. Okay, I’ll text Heather and tell her I’m on my way.”
“Just give me a minute to change.”
I waited in the hall for Luke while I texted Heather. There weren’t any more police officers making arrests when we passed through the lobby. I didn’t see Mrs. Harper anywhere. The information I�
�d found from Chelsea’s computer knocked at the back of my brain insistently. I knew what I needed to do next. I pulled out my cell phone. “I’m going to call Officer Kinau and tell him what I found. I hope he doesn’t arrest me for being a nuisance.”
Luke laughed. “Now that would be kind of funny.”
“You must have teased your little sisters like crazy.”
Luke grinned. “They were the peskiest little girls ever, and they did plenty of their own harassing.”
I laughed. It was good to release the tension I’d been carrying around all day. I dialed the police station and within a few minutes, I’d relayed all of the information I’d found—without revealing exactly how I’d found it—to Officer Kinau. I made a special note to repeat the connection I’d found between Stacia and PFI. He thanked me and said that they were considering everything carefully in regards to Neil’s arrest. I ended the call and decided to push the investigation from my mind for a few minutes.
I glanced at Luke. “Thanks for bringing me. It’s nice to have good company.”
“I agree.” Luke patted my hand and for a half-second, I thought he might hold it, but he moved his back and tapped his leg in time with a song playing on the radio. The steel drums sounded cheerful, and it made me wish that this trip hadn’t been so eventful.
“Remember looking out at the Na Pali Coast line?” Luke asked.
“I’ll never forget. It’s been my favorite moment so far on Kauai.”
“How would you like to hike with me up one of those mountains?”
“Really? I’d love to.”
I loved the way Luke’s grin widened from ear to ear when he was excited about something. “Maybe we could go on Saturday since you don’t have a wedding to attend anymore.”
Then I remembered something from my handy guidebook. “Wait a minute, that’s not the twenty-two mile hike I read about, is it? I don’t think I’m up for that. My bruises are still tender from the lava pools.” I thought about the investigation I’d landed myself in—I couldn’t concentrate on a hike for any length of time until I discovered something to prove Neil’s innocence.
“No, not the long hike. There’s a short one on the Kalalau Trail. We’d just hike to the Hanakapiai beach. It goes up about a thousand feet from the coast. I think you’d like it, and I know those Idaho lungs will help you hiking at sea level. It’ll feel like a cinch.”
“How about this? If I can figure out how to help Neil, I’ll go on this hike with you.”
“Sounds fair enough.” Luke refocused on the road, his headlights skimming off the vegetation and trees overhanging everything. “Is this it?”
“Yes, why don’t you come in with me?”
Luke turned to look at me, his eyes widening. “What about—”
“I’ve only been on a few dates with Jon. He’s not my boyfriend, and after everything that’s happened, I don’t know if I’ll even see him again. He’s a really nice guy. If you’d quit scowling at him long enough, you would see that for yourself.”
“Okay, okay. I won’t say any more bad things about Jon.” He held his hands in the air as if in surrender.
He opened his door, but his phone started ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and looked at me. “It’s Malia. Let me take this and I’ll come in. It might be a few minutes.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Luke answered the phone. “Hi, Malia. How are the lovebirds?” He waggled his eyebrows in my direction and I frowned, my curiosity pricking. I hadn’t been able to talk to Malia yet, but maybe I’d get the chance soon. Luke hadn’t seemed quite as worried about her and Kyle, and I wondered if it was because he knew something I didn’t.
“Actually, I’m just dropping Adri off to the house. She came to talk to Jon about something.” Luke shooed me out of the car. I swatted at him before jumping out. He was close to Malia, and he’d mentioned that things would turn out all right for her. I wanted to know how that was going to happen amidst all the heartache in the Connelly family right now.
A motion light clicked on, blinding me for an instant as I approached the front door. My phone rang next, the ring tone startling me in the stillness. I nearly dropped the phone when I saw that it was Officer Kinau calling me back.
“Miss Pyper. I wanted to let you know that we were able to take a look at the second bracelet and it also had initials engraved on the band.” He hesitated and I leaned forward, straining to hear above the buzzing of insects flitting around the light. “They were J.C. The initials of his son, Jonathan.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Actually, it might. In the meantime, it might be best to steer clear of the Connellys until we figure this out,” Officer Kinau warned.
I looked up at their front door. “Well, that will be hard to do as I’m here with the family to offer support. But I will be cautious.”
“Call me if you think those initials have any significance beyond Jon Connelly.”
“Okay.” The phone beeped as we disconnected.
I stepped back and sat on the front porch, the impact of two letters might mean that I couldn’t trust my heart after all. Was I doomed to always choose the wrong man? I thought about what Officer Kinau had said. J.C.—why would the woman be wearing a bracelet with Jon’s initials? It didn’t make sense. Did she have another alias that we hadn’t discovered? Had she stolen the bracelet?
My heart stuttered. Neil hadn’t offered more information about the bracelet for a reason. If he had it engraved for his son, Jon, the one who was supposed to take over Tri-C, he would know that the bracelet would implicate his son. I shook my head. It still didn’t make sense. Jon had told his father about removing the bracelet. But did Neil know that the police had possession of the second bracelet? All of the questions made my head spin. With that many possibilities, an answer must be floating nearby. I just couldn’t see what it was.
“Adri? What are you doing sitting out here?” Heather stepped onto the porch.
“Oh, my phone rang as I was about to knock on the door. I was just finishing up the call.” I showed her my cell phone and stowed it in my purse.
“Well, come on in. Jon will be so glad you’ve come. It’s sweet of you to help him right now.” Heather put her arm around me and led me into the house. “You’re probably hungry. I hope you can stay and eat with us.”
“Thanks.” I followed her into the kitchen. “I’m so sorry about everything that’s happened. I want you to know that I’m certain Neil didn’t do this.”
Heather’s eyes filled with moisture. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
I looked around the room, noting the silence in the house. “Is Jon home?”
“No, he ran out to get a couple things for dinner. He should be back soon.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize he’d be gone.” I thought about going to check on Luke, maybe interrogating him about whatever he was talking to Malia about. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring him, considering Heather’s emotional state. I decided to wait a few minutes before mentioning that another guest would soon be joining us.
“Let me get you a drink.” Heather poured a glass of lemonade and handed it to me.
“Could I have a drink of water first? I’m pretty thirsty.”
“Oh, that’s fresh squeezed with only a tiny bit of Stevia, it’s practically water.” She put the glass in my hand. “Try it. It’s Jon’s favorite.”
I nodded and took a sip. “Mmm,” I said, even though I wanted to say yuck. There was a strange metallic hint of something in the lemonade. Maybe it was the Stevia. I wasn’t experienced with the natural sweetener Jon apparently loved.
Heather watched me, her smile seemed forced. “I feel bad. You’re waiting on me after everything that’s happened. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Actually, yes. I wanted to walk out on the beach and listen for the black-crowned night heron. If you listen close, you can often hear them fly overhead in the evening. The sound always
comforts me, but I was anxious tonight about going out alone.”
“Would you like me to come with you?”
“That would be lovely.” Heather rubbed her temples and then straightened, motioning toward the back of the house.
I followed her out the patio doors, onto the open deck and the stairs that led down to the beach. Luke must still be on the phone with Malia, so maybe we’d be back in the house by the time he was finished.
Chapter 22
SHARP KNIVES & SCISSORS
Dull knives and scissors are a hazard in the kitchen and craft room. Sharpen at least once a year to avoid injury. To sharpen scissors at home, cut sandpaper. Use a relatively fine 150 or 200 grit sandpaper, cut with the rough side down, with about 2-3 scissor strokes.
Courtesy of www.mashedpotatoesandcrafts.com
The moon was half-full, whispering its light between the breaths of clouds whisking over its surface. The shoreline was about fifty yards from the back of the house.
“Let’s go down by the ocean first. It’s beautiful tonight,” Heather said.
I followed her, slipping off my flip-flops as we approached the edge of the water rushing up to meet the sand.
“I love the way the light plays on the water at night.” Heather sighed. “There’s nothing like it.”
“It’s spectacular.” I listened to the rush of waves and thought how the ocean must be especially calming to someone like Heather who lived right next to it.
“Oh, there’s a sea turtle.” The water shimmered and I looked out where Heather indicated and squinted through the darkness. A flash of movement to the side caught my attention, and I jumped to the left as something heavy came down across my back.
I cried out as I stumbled into the water, covering my head and scrambling away from whatever had hit me. Heather swore. I dove into the water, my knees skidding along the sand as I swam against the waves crashing to the shore. I heard the wave coming, felt the shift and pull of the water, and dove deeper as it washed over my body. When I resurfaced, I sucked in a breath and screamed. “Help! Help me!”
Veils and Vengeance Page 23