"Two minutes," he said, smiling and turning to pour the wine.
I leaned against the kitchen counter, pushing his phone aside, needing something to do other than standing and wringing my hands. I took two deep breaths, attempting to settle the uneasiness I was feeling.
"How was work today?" I asked.
"It was average. Not too busy. Having some problems with one of the beer lines, but otherwise okay. Yours?"
"Same. Had a group of awesome kids this afternoon. A couple of them are actually quite good. I think they're going to do well."
"Great."
The conversation continued, yet it felt stilted, unnatural, each of us aware of the conversation to come.
Dinner was delicious, yet the underlying tension sat like the big, fat elephant in the room. It wasn't like us. We were usually easy, comfortable, and relaxed with each other.
Downing my third glass of wine, I plucked up the courage to address what needed to be addressed.
"So, ummm…Veronica. How, ummm, how did you two meet?"
Casey sighed and put his glass on the table.
"Through Travis. She was friends with his sister. They visited the flat one night, and we clicked."
I nodded, gulping hard.
"How long were you together before you got engaged?" I asked.
Casey looked a bit stunned. "How do you know we were engaged?"
"I saw a photo of you together. On Ryan's Facebook page. Nice ring, by the way," I added, feeling a bit sick.
"Oh, okay. Ummm, we were together probably eight months."
"What happened?"
He lifted the bottle of wine and filled his glass to the max. As a barman, that wasn't something he would normally do. I watched silently as he put the glass to his lips and gulped it down. Placing it back on the table, he sighed. "She slept with Ryan. I came home from work one afternoon with a migraine. When I opened the door to the flat I shared with Ryan, they were naked on the couch. You can guess what they were doing."
I saw the anger flash through his eyes, and his jaw tensed.
"So…" I said, unsure of where to go from there. "How long was that after the engagement?"
"A week."
"A week!" I exclaimed.
"Yes. A week." Casey sat forward in his chair and put his head in his hands.
I wanted to stop the questions and hold him tight. But I needed the answers, and I was worried that if I stopped now, I might never pluck up the courage again to ask.
"She then filed the charges saying I beat her and pushed her down the stairs," he continued.
"Why did she do that?" I asked, horrified.
"Because Ryan and I had a fight. She did it to punish me."
I let the information sink in as Casey downed the wine in his glass before refilling it.
"The second the charges were dropped, I packed up my things and applied to move to Aloha Lagoon."
"You've only been here six months," I added.
Casey nodded, looking at me as the time frame sunk in. Six months ago Casey had been in love with another woman. So in love he had asked her to marry him.
The carbonara churned as with a shaking hand I poured myself another glass of wine.
"Well then…" I said, looking into the liquid.
"Sam, it's the past. It doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done, and that can't be changed. We can only move forward."
I lifted the glass to my lips and swallowed.
When I was satisfied my voice wouldn't shake, I said, "It matters because you didn't tell me."
"I didn't tell you because it doesn't matter."
"Do you still love her?" I asked, looking deep into his eyes. If he lied, I would know. Casey's eyes told you everything about him.
He couldn't hold my stare. That answered my question.
"You're not over her, are you?" Tears stung as I held on tight, not allowing my emotions to go there, but knowing without a doubt that was the real reason Casey hadn't told me about her.
He didn't respond immediately. "I'm over her."
So why didn't I believe him?
After a few minutes of silence, I asked, "What about Travis? How does he fit into all of this?" I attempted to steer the conversation to more comfortable ground.
"He didn't. Until the day Ryan walked into The Lava Pot. Ryan told me he wasn't the only one she had been sleeping with. The day I saw Travis in town, I asked him about it."
"What did he say?"
"He denied it. Said Ryan was a liar."
"Did you believe him?"
"I had no reason not to. Ryan was a liar."
"And what did you talk to Travis about on the beach this morning?"
"I asked him again why he was here."
"His answer was?"
"He's looking for what Ryan was looking for."
"What's that?"
"He demanded to know what Ryan had told me, so I figure it's the treasure he's looking for. Ryan and I were tight once. Travis was always jealous of that." Casey appeared lost in memories for a moment. "At one time Ryan told me all of his secrets. Travis believes Ryan told me where the treasure was buried. I now believe he was watching you thinking I had passed that information to you."
Casey's jaw tensed once again. If he didn't stop that, he was going to need a very good dentist to fix all his broken teeth.
"Do we need to find this treasure?" I asked.
"How can we? We don't have the journal telling us where it is, so it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
I allowed his words to sink in, realizing he was right. What was the point of even looking? "What happens now?" I asked. "With Veronica. She's back, and she's looking for you."
"Nothing happens now. I'm with you, and that's the way I want it to be."
Did you notice he didn't say he loved me?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Detective Ray Kahoalani stood in front of me, glaring. He was holding Ryan's iPad and notebook.
"So you found this when?" he asked.
"On Saturday," I replied. The walls of his office felt like they were closing in on me. The air conditioning was on the blink, and the mess on his desk was overwhelming. Why had I offered to do this alone? Oh that was right—Casey, Luke, and Alani all had to work. How convenient. Juls had given me the morning off as I'd worked Saturday morning for her, which was great. I just could have thought of better ways to spend it.
"And you are just bringing this to my attention now?"
Of course we already had the printouts of every document we wanted to keep. And that was a lot of documents.
I nodded.
"Do you think you should have brought this to me earlier?" he asked, sounding annoyed.
I guessed I couldn't blame him.
"I could book you for withholding evidence, you know."
"So you agree it is, indeed, evidence that someone other than Casey could have killed Ryan?"
The detective let out an impatient sigh. For a man who wore bright, happy shirts, he sure looked grumpy a lot. "Samantha, I have never discounted the idea that someone other than Casey could have killed Mr. Hobson. I'm still collecting evidence and building my case, which is why I haven't made any arrests."
"Oh. Well…okay." That sounded promising.
"Yet," he finished his sentence.
Bugger.
"Detective, can I ask you a question?"
He sighed again. I took that for a yes, and continued on. "Did you ever find Ryan's phone?"
"No."
"Do you think that's strange?"
"We will find it. Why do you want to know?"
"Well, the photos in Ryan's iCloud account weren't synced since he arrived in Aloha Lagoon."
Detective Ray's eyebrows knotted together. "How do you know this?"
Ooops.
The detective didn't wait for my response. He knew exactly how I knew this. "Maybe he didn't have a data signal to do the transfer," he continued.
He crossed his arms over his
chest and sat back in his chair, studying me.
"I just wondered if any of those photos would give us any clues as to who would have murdered him," I finished lamely.
"I can't imagine that being the case, but when we find the phone—and we will find it—I'll be sure to check. Now is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yes. I told you that the guy who was following me was Travis, didn't I? Well, don't you think it's suspicious that he turns up here the same day Ryan is killed?"
"I have spoken to him. He's adamant that his only reason for being here is for a vacation. I do, however, agree that his timing is unusual. Has he made any more contact with you since your run-in with him in the Coconut Co-Op?"
"You know about that?"
"Everyone knows about that," he said flatly.
I sighed. "Am I in trouble for it?"
"No. You paid for the damages, and they didn't file a complaint, so it seems no harm was done."
I sighed again, only this time it was with relief. I then brought Detective Ray up to date with what was what in relation to Travis.
"He spoke to Casey demanding to know what Ryan had told him. He wouldn't even believe him when Casey said that all he had spoken to Ryan about was how angry he still was that he'd taken his fiancée." Bugger! I shouldn't have said that bit. "And the bicep guy is still hanging around," I added to quickly distract the detective from opening his notebook and writing anything in it about Casey. "He stopped me outside the Coconut Co-Op demanding I stay away from the treasure. Why would he do that? I'm not even looking into it." I barely stopped for a breath before continuing on. It seemed now that I had opened up to the detective, there was going to be no shutting me up. "Who do you think broke into Casey's house? It really could have been either Travis or Bicep Man trying to find out what Ryan had told Casey. I mean, they're obviously after something. First Ryan is murdered, his resort room is ransacked, someone starts to follow me, and then Casey's home is broken into. What are they all looking for?"
I'd rambled, spilling almost everything to Detective Ray. Sometime throughout my rant, he had pulled out his notebook and was now scribbling. Thank goodness it just wasn't at the part where I'd mentioned Casey was still angry at Ryan.
"Anything else?" he asked, peering at me.
"Yes. There's Veronica."
"Who's Veronica?"
"She's Casey's ex-fiancée," I said wringing my hands in my lap, the word sticking in my throat. "But he told me she slept with Ryan, and that's why they broke up. I don't know why she's here, but it's related to Travis. She told me so. She said she had come to Aloha Lagoon to find Travis. Why?"
"I don't know why," said the detective rather emphatically.
"She scares me," I added quietly.
"Has she threatened you?"
"Not with violence." Tears pricked my eyelids. "But she wants Casey back."
Detective Ray let out a large breath. "Samantha, it doesn't matter."
I was sick of hearing those words. "Not to you it doesn't," I said, flicking the tears away as they spilled over my lashes. "But I love him. I don't want to lose him."
"I meant it doesn't matter that she wants him back. You're his girlfriend now." Detective Ray's tone was soothing and kind, and all it did was cause the emotion I'd been holding down to bubble to the surface and spew out like an active volcano. As the tears turned to sobbing, I stammered, "B-but…I think he's still in love with her." The sobbing mixed with the hiccups, and I wondered if the detective would rapidly run from the room.
But he was made of stronger stuff than that. Instead he moved to my side of the desk and picked up a stack of files. Finding a tissue box, he passed them to me. "I've seen a lot of things in my time on the police force. I've learned a lot about human behavior. Believe me when I tell you he doesn't look like a man in love with another woman."
His words were kind. I'd never seen this side of Detective Ray. Normally I saw the professional face of the law, a man who will uphold it with dignity and honor. Now I was looking into the eyes of a father, a husband, or a son. I didn't know anything about his private life, but I saw that whatever and whoever he was, was a kind, considerate, loving person. One who still needed to stop working on island time and hurry the heck up and solve this mystery so my life could go back to what it was before Ryan arrived.
I left the police station and made my way towards Lahela's Surf. Alani was working today, and I wanted a friend to talk to about what had happened at Casey's last night.
Her happy, smiling face was just the tonic I needed. Plus, she could give me some advice about how to go forward from here.
I was back to riding the bike after giving the car back to Mum last night. Yes, I was supposed to stay at Casey's, but I couldn't. Every time I'd looked at him, he'd been lost in another world. Of course he'd acted normal and chatty, but I saw it. Saw it in his eyes. Like I said, you could tell everything about Casey just by looking into them.
I rode down the main street and made a left turn, stopping outside the quaint surf shop. Leaning the bike against the wall, I wiped the sweat from my forehead. The sun was shining, and the day had started out hot.
The bell jingled above the door as I entered the store.
Lahela's Surf was founded by Alani's grandmother, Lahela. It was a small family-run business situated on the edge of town, not too far from the main beach. It stocked a variety of boards, wet suits, and swimsuits, as well as a selection of clothing. The walls were decorated with vintage posters of Hawaii and surfers, the floors were wooden, and the atmosphere was inviting. I loved it! Next to the beach, it was high on my list of places where I felt the most relaxed.
"Hey, you!" sang Alani, smiling at me from behind the counter.
"Hey," I said, going for upbeat. Not sure I managed it, as Alani frowned the second the word left my lips.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh you know." I scanned the shop for customers.
"We're alone," Alani said, obviously picking up on what I was doing.
I nodded. "Okay. I didn't want to interrupt you working. I was hoping you might be free for an early lunch or something."
"What time are you starting work today?"
"Twelve."
"I'm sorry. I can't get away until Hani gets here at one. We can talk now though."
I felt uneasy talking about Casey in public, so I kept my ear open for the jingle of the bell and filled Alani in on everything he'd told me. Including how he had been engaged.
"So you're worried that now that Veronica is here, she's going to win him back?" Alani looked annoyed.
I knew she would. She was always on my side.
"Yes. I'm going to lose him," I said, swallowing.
"Samantha, give Casey more credit than that! He's given you no reason to believe that."
Okay, I wasn't expecting her to be mad at me!
"But…"
"But nothing. What has he done?"
"He hasn't been honest with me."
"Did he tell you everything last night?"
"Yes. I think so." At least it felt like he had.
"And can you possibly see why he hadn't said anything up until now?"
I sat and thought about her words.
"That would have been pretty painful for him," she continued.
"Yes, but it was only six months ago. Six months!"
"So?"
"So I lost my cat twelve months ago, and I'm still not over it!" I thought Alani would have understood. I thought she would be sitting here and swearing at the situation in support.
"Casey can't help that. He didn't create the timeline. He didn't know he would meet you when he did."
I sighed. "I know," I said reluctantly.
Alani walked around the counter and gave me a hug. "Trust him, Sam. Even if he still has some feelings for her, you need to trust that he loves you now. Until he does something to break that trust, you have no other options."
"It just sucks, that's all. I've given him plenty of opportunit
ies to tell me about her, to tell me something as huge as him being engaged. But every time he just tells me the past is in the past."
"It is. Time changes everything. He's done nothing wrong. In fact, I think he's the victim here."
"I know that," I said, rubbing my nose to stop the prickly feeling that would threaten the onset of tears. "Which is why I've been trying to help him. I love him, Alani. I want him to love me the same way."
"He does."
"He hasn't said it though."
"Trust him, Sam. Trust him."
* * *
By the time I left the shop, I felt better. Well, better as in better about Casey. I actually felt worse about the way I had treated him. Not that I had treated him badly, but it was just that I shouldn't have doubted him. If he had wanted to keep the information about an engagement quiet for a while, then I needed to respect that he had his reasons. I also needed to respect that he hadn't done anything to give me doubts about his feelings for me. It was my own insecurities I needed to deal with—not him.
I peddled my way towards the resort, watching the waves and the beachgoers enjoying the late-morning sun. Pulling into the staff parking area, I secured my bike to a post and made my way along the path, around the lagoon, and into the resort grounds.
And straight into Casey and Veronica—kissing.
I wanted to be okay with it. I wanted to run to him and tell him I was sorry, sorry that I doubted him, but the fact that his lips were stuck to hers made that difficult.
Actually it made a lot of things difficult. Like thinking. And breathing. Yep, the breathing became more and more difficult every second they stayed like that.
Suddenly realizing my presence, he pulled away from her. He looked dazed and confused.
"Sam!" he said, seeing me. "Sam! It's…it's not what you think."
I took two deep breaths, much needed oxygen flooding my brain. I couldn't make out what was what. I should have watched closer, noted the subtle body languages they were giving each other. It would have told me the whole story. But shock had deprived me of that ability. Every single word Alani had said came crashing down around me. Trust him. He's done nothing wrong.
This changed everything.
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