“Now, Fred, it wasn’t that bad.” Ana looked at them. “They were just overrun with people, and this was long before there were so many twenty-four-hour news stations. Sergeant Alan Smith was the main detective handling our case, but almost everyone was working on the Strangler case here and there.”
“Have you had any contact with him?” Graeme asked.
Fred nodded. “Every year on the anniversary of Jenny’s death, we would get a phone call from him. That is, until he died three years ago. Cancer.”
“I always thought he felt guilty that more wasn’t done for Jenny,” Ana said. “After he passed, another detective came by. Wanted to work on this on the side, said he had a lead. Do you remember his name?” she asked her husband.
“Jeffery Abbott. I did not like him. He was shifty.”
“Shifty?” Graeme asked.
“He asked for all our files, and was not happy when we refused. I did make him copies though,” Fred said, as he picked up the manila folder. “And I have a copy for you. I’m not sure how much it will help, but there were things we kept track of, things her friends told us that might help.”
Graeme took the envelope. “Any little bit will help.”
Ana set her hand on top of his and looked him in the eye. He saw the pain there, but he also saw determination. “Just do your best to find the monster who did this.”
“I will do everything in my power.”
* * *
It was close to noon by the time Elle made it to Del and Emma’s condo in Hawaii Kai. The door flung open.
“What took you so bloody long?”
Elle laughed. “I had to drive over from Haleiwa. Plus, I got home after two in the morning. I took everyone’s advice and slept late. Then I stopped by the drugstore to pick something up.”
“You left me here worrying that I have cancer?”
Elle shook her head. Emma was definitely in high gear today. The melodramatic behavior wasn’t like her at all.
“Emma, you have a genius IQ. You know you don’t have cancer, or you would have faced it head on.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You survived on your own after the tsunami, you fought off a serial killer, and you’re marrying Del. If that doesn’t take some guts, I don’t know what does.”
She smiled, then it faded. “I just want to make sure.”
“Why didn’t you just go to your regular doctor?” Elle asked.
Emma made a face. “I did. She said there was nothing wrong with me. Stress. And then, I made the mistake of saying something in front of Sean, who then blamed Del.” She rolled her eyes. “Being surrounded by a bunch of alpha males is not fun. I did not think I would end up in this position, since I have avoided them most of my adult life. Now, I feel as if I can’t look sideways without them worrying. All this stress is causing my insomnia to get worse; then, at times, I can’t stay awake. And, I’ve missed my period for two months.”
Elle smiled. “It’s nice to know you’re loved though.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re any less annoying,” she said. “Give it to me straight. What’s wrong?”
“I haven’t done anything but look at you.” She cocked her head to the side and studied the younger woman. This was completely out of character for Emma. She was hyper, and she did have ADD, but there was a desperate edge to her comments today. “I really think you’re worrying too much about it.”
“So, you’re thinking stress too?”
“It could be that. I can understand that kind of thing. But, just in case, I picked something up on my way over.”
“Yeah?”
She pulled out the over-the-counter pregnancy test and handed it to Emma. “Go tinkle on the stick.”
“I’m not pregnant.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you told me just a few minutes ago you skipped your last two periods.”
“Nothing that uncommon for me though, and we use condoms.”
“Which are effective ninety-eight percent of the time. And, do you use one every time?”
Emma opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.
“I didn’t think so.”
“How did you know?”
“You’re both healthy, young, and engaged to be married. Neither of you strike me as the cheating kind; and remember, I was there once myself.” She handed Emma the box. “Go pee.”
Three minutes later, Elle had to catch Emma before she fainted dead out. When she recovered, she said, “I can’t be pregnant.”
“Love, you are pregnant.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“You’ll have to make time. You can do it, Emma. Del is going to be thrilled.”
“Oh, lord, I have to tell Del? He is going to freak out.”
“Believe me, a man like Del will be happy.”
Emma glanced at her sharply. “You think?”
She nodded as she sat down across from Emma at the table. “I was pregnant once. I didn’t find out until about a month after the wedding, but, I will tell you, Gerald was thrilled.”
“You lost the baby?”
She nodded. “A month after that, I lost the baby...and then things went completely to crap afterwards. But, you’re healthy and at least two months pregnant. Go see your doc, and get a recommendation for a good OB/GYN. I am wondering why she didn’t have you take a pregnancy test.”
Emma offered her a sheepish smile. “I might have left out the whole missed my period.”
“I can’t believe you did that.”
“I have issues with the idea of being a mother, so I like to pretend that is way off in the future.”
That was one way they were similar. They both thought they could control things that were uncontrollable.
“It’s not. It is probably about 7 months down the line. Promise me you will tell Del, and you will make an appointment with the OB/GYN. Prenatal care is very important.”
Emma nodded. “Now, tell me about you and Graeme.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“There was something there.”
She didn’t really want to tell her, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Okay, he kissed me last night.”
Emma pumped her fist in the air. “Ha, I knew it. I win.”
She stared at the younger woman. “Please tell me there wasn’t a bet on us.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you that.”
“Bloody hell. You can’t claim it.”
Emma frowned. “I won. I have to.”
“How did you win?”
“I bet that you would let him kiss you on a date.”
“Well, you didn’t win, then. We were not on a date, we were working.”
“Same difference for people like us.”
She did not want the entire team to know about her personal life. She had to think of something to keep Emma from spilling the beans.
“You tell the team and I’ll tell Del you’re betting.”
Emma frowned and sat back in the chair. Everyone knew that Del didn’t like the betting going on in the office. In fact, he had forbidden them from wagering on anything. They all still ignored him, but he did not know that Emma was still betting. It wouldn’t go over well.
“Besides, you have more important things to talk over with Del, right?”
“I might not be a good mother.”
“You will be a wonderful mother, and you have a great ohana to help you. You know we will all help.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment, but then, slowly, her mouth curved; then she was grinning.
“Yeah. I have an ohana who will help.”
“Why don’t we get something to eat, and then you can figure out how to tell Del he’s going to be a daddy?”
* * *
After grabbing a couple of lunch plates and eating outside watching the windsurfers, Elle dropped Emma at the condo and headed to the office. She wanted to stop in and see if anything was happening with the case.
H
er mobile rang just as she started walking up the stairs. She pulled it out and noticed it was McGregor.
“Hey, did you need something?”
There was a pause. “I wanted to know if you heard the latest crap that just hit.”
“No. I was out this morning, stopped by to have lunch with Emma. Now I’m at the office.”
She had just reached the door to the office and pushed it open. Then he saw her. In that instant, she felt a heat wave roll through her body. It was a stupid reaction, but something changed in his gaze when it locked with hers. There was something to be said about the way it felt to have all of Graeme’s attention. It made every bit of her body tingle.
Bloody hell.
She clicked off her mobile.
“What’s going on?”
His expression turned dark. “We have no case files. None. As in nothing.”
“What?”
“Carino went over to check them out, and they just weren’t there. And, there was no information on who checked them out last.”
“Bloody hell.”
“I was thinking we could go talk to McPherson. Since the information hit the press, we can now ask people about it. He was a cop here at the time, so he might remember more about the case.”
“Brilliant,” she said. She looked at her phone. “He opens for lunch soon, so he should be there already.”
He nodded just as Del walked into the office.
“Hey, I heard you went to lunch with Emma.”
She nodded. “We got a couple of shrimp plates and enjoyed the nice trades that blew in today.
He looked at Graeme. “Carino called over and said he’s having a hard time finding out who had the case last. After Abbot, the trail goes cold. Without the case files, it’s going to be near impossible.”
“Isn’t it in the computer?” Elle asked.
“You forget that they were still filling out reports with typewriters at the time,” Graeme said. “We have the name of the detective. Alan Smith, but he’s gone. We do have a little bit from from the Kalanis. They kept everything in the file, and we are making copies of it so all of us can use the information.”
“I thought they had inputted all the cold cases?” she asked.
“Nope. Most of them have been, but this one was not.”
She looked at Graeme. “I am starting to understand why Doc thought there might have been some tampering on the case. This is an unsolved case. I would think it would have been one of the first input.”
“Doc Keahi?”
She nodded. “He didn’t come right out and say it, but the fact that he made copies of the report, things like that. That makes me think he thought there might have been something going on.”
Del sighed. “It could have been a cop trying to cover up a bad case.”
“What do you mean?” Graeme asked.
“I was talking to Adam. Things like this happen from time to time, or did before everything was computerized. Now it’s hard to make things disappear. Back then, though...it was much easier. And, it might be that someone was trying to make sure he had a good yearly report. If so, we should be able to find it, but it might take a few days.”
“Well, then, maybe McPherson can help us,” Graeme said. “He was a cop then, and he had a pretty good memory.”
“Good idea. Let me know what you find.”
He headed off to his office as his phone started to ring again.
She looked at McGregor. “Ready?”
He nodded. “Let me grab my gun.”
He went back to his office, and she watched as he put his computer to sleep, retrieved his gun, then attached it to his waistband. It had never been something she had watched her ex do. She had always thought she wasn’t a woman who was attracted to men with guns. British police didn’t carry guns on a regular basis. And she had never been intrigued by a man with a gun on his belt.
But McGregor with a gun on his belt was a completely different matter. It made him appear somehow sexier...and that was something so odd to her. She didn’t particularly like guns, but then, she had never thought she would start having fantasies about a man like McGregor. Right now, she could imagine him taking off that belt and a whole lot more...then joining her in bed.
“Are you okay?”
“What?”
“You look kind of stunned.”
She blinked. “Sorry. I thought I caught up on my sleep, but maybe I need to make sure I get to bed early.”
Okay, she should not have said that. Now, that just furthered her fantasies. She did not need to be thinking about having a man like McGregor in her bed. He would expect things that she could not deliver. She’d been down that road in the last seven years, and it had ended badly for her.
* * *
The lunch crowd was starting to thin by the time Graeme and Elle made it to McPherson’s.
“I think I’ll grab myself something to eat while we’re here.”
She nodded, but said nothing else. She had been suspiciously quiet since they had left headquarters. He didn’t know what happened, but she had been very pensive.
“Hey, there, you two. Kind of early for you to be in here,” Will said as he walked up to them.
“We were hoping you could help us with the cold case,” Graeme said.
Will nodded. “Ah, the Kalani case.”
“Yes. But first, I’d like to order another burger.”
“Anything for you, love?” he asked Elle.
She shook her head. “I had lunch already.”
He nodded. “I’ll put in an order for that burger, then we can get down to business. Why don’t you take your regular booth, Doc?”
They headed back to the round booth once more. It seemed like it had been ages instead of less than a day. She slid into the booth and he waved her on.
“What?”
“Move over.”
“Why?”
Lord, the woman was stubborn. “Because I am not sitting next to Will. Plus, you’re a little shorter than I am. My legs dinna fit under that table as well.”
She gave him an odd look, but she slid into the middle of the booth.
“What was that look for?”
“Your accent slipped.”
“It’s not like I try to hide it.”
Before she could respond, Will joined them.
“Burger will be right up.”
“Thanks. So, you were around at the time of the Kalani murder.”
He nodded. “Although it wasn’t my case. I was assigned to the Honolulu Strangler task force. Most of us who had any kind of homicide experience worked on that one for a time.”
“And no one thought the two cases were connected?” Elle asked.
“At first, we had any killing of a young woman, even someone as young as little Jenny, checked out for any significant links. When it came back she was shot and there was no evidence of rape, we moved on.”
McGregor noticed Elle’s fingers twitched. The doc did not like that at all, but he didn’t want her getting into a fight with Will. He needed more info.
“Were there any leads?”
Will shook his head. “She was found on the road she had been walking on. There were no witnesses, as it was residential. Remember, this was thirty years ago. You can imagine how much different Honolulu was then, and this was a little ways up the mountain. The report said her money was gone, and the milk her mother had sent her to buy was found on the road just about thirty yards away from her body. I know that the lead detective really worked it hard.”
“And what was his name?” McGregor asked.
Will’s eyes narrowed. “I think it was Alan Smith. But it should be on the reports.”
Elle opened her mouth, but he broke in. “We’re waiting for Carino on the report. It’s not on the computer database, so we should have it by the time we get back.”
“Ah. So you have to do some real police work.”
McGregor smiled as the waitress set his burger in front of him.
“Some water would be great. You too, lass?” he asked Elle, who gave him a strange look, but she nodded.
“Do you have any more questions for me?” McPherson asked.
“No. Thanks.”
Will left them alone, and Elle leveled a look at him. “Now, are you going to explain all of that?”
He waited for the waitress to hand Elle her water before he continued. “We have to be careful who we talk to and how much info we release,” he said, pouring ketchup on his burger.
“But why are we hiding the fact the case file is missing?”
“For someone who was married to a cop, you don’t seem to know much about them.”
“What does that mean?”
“Old cops are like women.”
“I think you’re digging a hole you might not be able to get out of.”
He leaned closer and had to fight the urge to sniff. She always smelled like roses. He could just imagine her dabbing a bit of perfume behind her ears, then between her breasts...
“McGregor?”
He blinked. “Sorry. Old cops. They gossip. We don’t want them knowing we don’t have the file.”
“Because the one who does might have something to do with it.”
“Your doctor friend might have been right. Someone at HPD might have been screwing around with the case. They don’t need to know that we don’t have any evidence.”
“But whoever took it would know we don’t have it.”
He nodded. “But he doesn’t know that we might have other things. Plus, there’s always a chance that he didn’t take it, and it just disappeared.”
“And letting him know we don’t have it would have us at a disadvantage.”
“Beautiful and brilliant,” he said with a smile.
Elle choked on her water.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Not everyone would make the connections.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure anyone with mediocre intelligence could make the connections you laid out.”
He didn’t like the way she dismissed her intelligence, but he thought it interesting that she didn’t address the beautiful comment.
“Either way, we need to keep as much as possible to ourselves. The fewer people outside of TFH who know about this, the better.”
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