Paradise Crime Mysteries

by Toby Neal

  The FBI coming in was going to change things dramatically. Their lab resources alone would be invaluable. Still, they would take over the case, leaving little—if any—role for her and the Kaua`i task force. There was no question KPD’s meager resources weren’t up to an investigation of this magnitude and they needed the help, but the contemptuous look in Rogers’s eyes and the suspicious one in Scott’s didn’t bode well for her own role in things.

  The phone rang and Lei sighed, saying goodbye to the river as she went in. She brushed through the barred screen door and opened the phone, turning back to close and lock the door when Keiki was back inside.

  “Texeira.”

  “Sweets, it’s J-Boy. Your task force liaison, for however long it lasts.”

  “Yeah, my thoughts exactly. What’s the latest?”

  “They’re bringing over more agents. Flying some of their Behavioral Analysis Unit out from Virginia.”

  “Oh my God.” Even though she’d been preparing for this, confirmation was a sucker punch. She went to the freezer for the emergency vodka, poured a shot into one of her jelly glasses, and sat down. Keiki put her head on Lei’s thigh, ears swiveling anxiously.

  “How long do we have?”

  “Another conference early tomorrow and we’ll see. I think a day max.”

  Lei threw the vodka back in one burning gulp. It rendered her unable to speak.

  “You okay?” Jenkins sounded alarmed. “I should’ve come over to talk to you, but I thought you saw which way the wind was blowing this morning.”

  Lei coughed and pounded her chest. The alcohol hit her stomach, a bomb of warmth.

  “I’m okay. Emergency shot,” she wheezed. “Okay, yeah, I saw it coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take.”

  “Yeah, the captain even copped to having some idea that there were more disappearances than there should have been, but that he didn’t quote, 'have the resources’ unquote, to investigate.”

  “I hope that doesn’t bite him on the ass.”

  “Me too.” They sat a moment in morose silence. “So, Sweets, how was health food patrol today?”

  “Nothing popping. I’m having to work way too damn hard for nothing right now. I’m just waiting for this Saturday’s antics out at the papaya farm.”

  “So Haddock’s letting you attend the cult festivities?”

  “Yeah. Says I needed this week to establish myself as his ‘protégée’ and now he can bring me out there. I’m counting on you for backup.”

  “No way I’d miss it. Well, with the Feds on board at least Becky’s going to get some help with the bones. They’re bringing out a forensic bone specialist with a portable lab. Costs a fortune, but they can even extract DNA from bone and may be able to identify the vics. Agent Scott said they’re going to enter everything into that ViCAP database and see what they can find.”

  “I don’t know what the ViCAP is.”

  “It’s a whole division with different aspects, and one of the main assets is the national database of missing persons and unidentified human remains.”

  “Thanks for filling me in on this. The captain did the right thing bringing them on at this stage. I just hope they let us do something. This feels like my case, like it keeps unfolding for me for some reason. I’d like to keep that going.” Lei mixed up Keiki’s dog food as she spoke.

  “I know. That ViCAP program is awesome.” Lei hadn’t heard Jenkins sound so enthusiastic in a while. “They’re scanning in photos of the bones, tool marks, the hand you found, and the MO, as far as we know it, and sending it all to the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Like I said, a couple of BAU agents are coming to help Scott and Rogers, and they’ll be looking over everything in Haddock’s binder, everything we’ve gathered.”

  “Should be interesting.” Lei took a breath. “Marcella Scott. She seemed like a hardass.”

  “In more ways than one.”

  “Great, sexism from my partner. How’s Stevens taking it?”

  “Like a man.” Jenkins chuckled. “Don’t forget he was the one pushing for us to bring them in earlier. He and Becky are cooperating better than Fury and the rest.”

  “He and Becky seem to be getting pretty cozy.” Lei wished she could take the words back the minute they were out of her mouth. She didn’t want to sound like the jealous ex, but there it was. Again.

  “Yeah, they seem to be hitting it off. You got a problem with that? Seems like you have some action of your own going.”

  “’Course not. Just kinda wish…he was still on the Big Island.”

  “Don’t blame you. You guys are both moving on, I guess.” He paused, a long beat. “Well, Anu asked me out. We’re going to the movies.”

  “Great, J-Boy. You deserve a little fun.” Lei injected enthusiasm she didn’t feel into her voice. “Okay, see you at tomorrow’s briefing.”

  Lei turned off the phone. She didn’t have the capacity for any more interaction today. She went to the refrigerator and opened it. She hadn’t been to the store since Monday, and the few veggies left in the drawer were limp. She ended up making an omelet and writing herself a big note: buy food.

  It was probably going to be hippie food, but she was beginning to be okay with that.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Friday, October 29

  Lei sat at the long conference table in the war room the next morning. A cooling coffee carafe, a stack of Styrofoam cups, and warm malasadas, delicious doughnut rounds drowned in sugar from the Kapa`a Bakery, beckoned from an open pink box. It was a typical debriefing except for the suits ranged around the wall in power positions.

  She let her wig stream in a rebellious waterfall down the back of her chair. She’d aired and spot cleaned the hemp dress and was in that again, but there was no help for the peeling tattoos on her wrists. She picked at them as Special Agent in Charge Newsome, newly arrived from Quantico’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, stepped forward to address the group.

  “Kaua`i Police Department has done a great job with a huge investigation. But sometimes the best part of being great is knowing when to reach out for help. Captain Fernandez has chosen, wisely, to access the expertise and resources of FBI’s ViCAP program. We’re formally taking over the case. Detective Stevens, thank you.” Newsome stepped forward and shook Stevens’s hand. “Agents Rogers and Scott will liaise with you for the next few days, but we’ll be taking it from here.”

  Stevens’s face was stony. He said nothing.

  “Detective Texeira.” Agent Scott spoke, and Lei snapped to attention. “You have a unique angle going with the undercover thing. We aren’t convinced the TruthWay cult has anything to do with this killer, but from where you’re positioned you can keep eyes on Jazz Haddock, who’s our best suspect at this point.”

  “It’s true that Jazz knows way too much about the missing and didn’t surrender the stones he’d collected. Part of what I’ve been trying to investigate is his role in all this, but it’s been hard to establish.” Lei firmed up her voice and kept her hands in her lap, where she rubbed the black stone, anchoring herself. The FBI wouldn’t intimidate her if she could help it.

  “Yes, we agree he’s a viable suspect.” Rogers spoke this time. Along with SAC Newsome, two other new agents sat at the table. No one had introduced them. “We’re digging deep into his records, forensic evidence, everything we can find in that binder. He’s got some connection with this killer, and he trusts you. At least to a degree. We want to keep that going.”

  “And just when I’d decided he was exploiting me as a restaurant slave,” Lei said. No one laughed.

  “For now we’d like to keep you in place at the Health Guardian and going to the cult celebration this Saturday. Obviously, don’t let Haddock know we’re in the picture,” Scott said.

  “Obviously.” Lei inclined her head. “Well, I’ve got a shift to keep. Got anybody who wants to join me in this undercover venture? We can catch up out at the safe house in Kilauea. I’m not sure how much the cult is watching me,
and I want to keep trips to the station minimal.”

  “I’m coming in with you. We won’t want you to go to the cult alone.” Scott stepped away from the wall as she spoke. “I’m going to become your new best friend, and I want you to introduce me to Haddock.” Her dimpled smile had a lot of teeth. “For today just do your usual; I’ll meet you at the safe house this evening to strategize going undercover with you. We’re also going to be recording you and keeping Haddock under surveillance from now on.” She handed Lei a tiny earpiece and button mike.

  “Sounds fun.” Lei gave back some toothiness as she took the equipment. “I can’t wait.”

  She stood and walked out, putting some swing in her step. Her mind flashed to the phrase “can be oppositional with authority” that Lieutenant Ohale on the Big Island had written in her last performance appraisal. She needed to get herself in hand, but situations like this just didn’t seem to bring out the best in her.

  “You going to be okay with all this?” Stevens had followed her out.

  “I should ask you the same thing.” Lei walked on. The double doors whisked open with a pneumatic sigh.

  “I’m not thrilled about it—I wanted us to be able to break this case open. But with so many bones and so little resources, it was past time to bring them in.”

  “I know.” Lei unlocked her truck. “It’s weird, everything changing so fast, all these new people. At least I get to continue on the case for now.”

  “I’m still organizing the cadaver hunt. They’re counting on our manpower; even with five agents here, the canvass of Hanalei Valley is going to take a lot of resources.”

  “Okay. Well, going now.” The earlier kiss hung between them, haunting and magnetic. Stevens nodded and walked away.

  Lei stood by the chain-link gate of the police safe house in Kilauea. Marcella Scott had called Lei to rendezvous there several hours into her workday. It had been a long morning at the Health Guardian with little to show for it, and now heightened tension thrummed through her.

  A battered green Camaro pulled up, and Special Agent Marcella Scott got out of the driver’s side. Sleek brown hair hung in braids with curling ends, and she wore frayed denim shorts, flip flops on her feet, and a tank top emblazoned with Bob Marley over a long-sleeved tee. Lei wouldn’t have recognized her from the buttoned-down woman she’d met at the briefing.

  “Ready to come work at the Guardian, I see,” Lei said. “What I don’t know how to do is sell you to Jazz.”

  “Let me worry about that. You remember Matt Rogers from the briefing.” Marcella gestured to the brawny man who’d got out of the passenger side. The agent had mussed up his short hair and put on jeans and a T-shirt, but there was no disguising the military set of his shoulders as he swung a briefcase out from behind the bucket seat.

  “Sure. Come on in.” Lei led the two agents into the little house and locked the door behind them as they did a quick assessment of the modest living space. She led them to the Formica kitchen table.

  “Kaua`i Police Department uses this house for witnesses, retreats, whenever someone’s undercover. It’s not much, but it works. They keep the fridge stocked with some basics. Something to drink?”

  “Water’s fine,” Marcella said. Rogers booted up a laptop from the case. Lei got a water bottle out of the fridge, handed it to the agent, and opened a Diet Coke for herself.

  “Here’s the cover story. I’m your friend Marcella from the Big Island. Nothing to do with the investigation, but I need a job. I’m thinking I’ll offer to take your coffee shop job in the Guardian, and you can focus on developing your relationship with Jazz. Offer to be his personal assistant. Get in closer. Poke around his office. Meanwhile, Rogers is going to be our backup, keeping an eye from outside in the surveillance van.”

  “Seems like you’ve got it covered.” Lei took a sip of her Diet Coke, leaning back against the counter. “What’s the rest of the task force doing?”

  “Reassigned. They’re back to regular KPD cases. We’ve been getting up to speed at the station all day and working on different scenarios. With four field agents and two lab techs here, we should make some rapid progress.” Marcella cocked her head. “There was some interesting chatter on your comm today.”

  “Not that I noticed,” Lei said. “Just Dan the smoothie guy talking story.”

  “We thought his interest in you might be more than usual. He was asking a lot of questions.”

  “He’s just friendly.” Lei made a flicking gesture. “Might want to get a little more than friendly, but I don’t think he’s got a lot upstairs. Speaking of which, what do you think of that guy Tiger? He’s got potential as a suspect.”

  “We’ve been trying to find him in the system, but so far, no go. This Sunday I think Lani needs to bring her friend Marcella to the cult festivities. While we’re there, I’ll get samples and photos to help us ID him.”

  “I don’t know if Jazz will go for that. He’s going to be suspicious about just bringing you into the store.”

  “Let me handle it.” Marcella smiled. “I think he’ll be interested in what I can add to the celebration. I’m a trained belly dancer.”

  “Belly dancer!” Rogers exclaimed. Marcella’s dimple deepened.

  “Never know what you’ll need to do in the service of our government. I also speak four languages. Did some time overseas. Belly dancing came in handy more often than I want to think about.”

  Marcella Scott was a woman with brains and a body who knew how to use both to solve her cases. Lei was just beginning to realize the potential of this.

  “Maybe you can show me some moves.” Lei eyed the agent over her Diet Coke.

  “This I gotta see.” Rogers winked at his partner.

  “All you get is your surveillance scope.” Marcella went on to outline the plan the FBI had put together for Saturday night.

  Lei felt the frisson of apprehensive excitement that made the job addicting tighten her sternum. She could hardly wait.

  Lei pushed the clattering wooden beads that screened Jazz’s door aside and stuck her head in.

  “Hello?”

  Jazz pushed back from the computer. A smile lit his face. “My favorite undercover cop. Just need a few more like you and we’d be really raking in the dough.”

  “About that.” Lei came in and gave Marcella’s hand a tug, closing the inner door behind them as the shapely agent followed her into the dim office. “This is my friend Marcella. She needs a job.”

  Jazz took a minute to roll his eye over the Marley shirt and beads the agent had on, and Marcella brought out the dimple and white teeth. “I’m a hard worker. I just want a chance to show you what I can do.” She cocked a hip in short shorts.

  Lei wondered if the agent was laying it on a little thick.

  “She a cop?” He narrowed his eyes.

  “Does she look like a cop? She’s my friend from the Big Island.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Marcella broke character, digging into her tight pocket and producing a creds wallet. “Special Agent Marcella Scott, FBI,” she said.

  Jazz recoiled away from them in his rolling chair. “Oh no. No. This isn’t what I signed on for.”

  “We’ve done a little background workup on you, Mr. Haddock. Tax evasion is just the beginning of what we found. This store looks like an ideal front for drug dealing. Cooperate with our investigation, or spend some time in Halawa Prison,” Marcella said, the dimple still in place and the smile a little unnerving now.

  “You don’t understand. The cult trusts me. I can’t bring more cops in. I’d be finished in this town.”

  “Look at us,” Marcella said. “Do we look like cops? Yeah, we’ll have a surveillance team on us, but you’ll never know they’re there and neither will anyone else. The only thing we want is the murderer who’s disappearing people you claim to care about.”

  Jazz leaned forward, bringing a shaking hand up to rub his eyes. Lei saw Marcella taking in the dimly lit offic
e, the rich scent of incense, the straining wail of sitar music in the background.

  “All right.”

  “All right,” Lei echoed. “And since Marcella’s coming on, how about I help you organize back here? She can take the front. I’ll take the back.”

  “I don’t need office help.”

  Lei gestured to the teetering pile of invoices held down with a chunk of amethyst.

  “You do too. It’s not like we’re investigating you or anything.” She wished she could cross her fingers behind her back.

  He shook his head. Marcella switched the charm back on.

  “We appreciate your cooperation, Mr. Haddock. You’re going to be a hero when we catch this guy.”

  “Okay, okay,” Jazz muttered, and turned away. “Have Dan show her the ropes and come back here. I guess I could use a hand with the billing.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Saturday, October 30

  Late Saturday morning, Lei toweled off from a shower and rubbed fragrant coconut oil into her skin. Her shoulders were reddened from running on the beach, freckles standing out against her olive skin. She rubbed the oil all over, feeling a little refreshed by cleaning up, but not in the mood for some mysterious date with Alika. She was too keyed up about the undercover op at the papaya farm. She’d already tried to call and cancel and he wouldn’t take no for an answer, saying plans were already in motion.

  She flicked on some mascara along with some sparkly lip gloss and slipped on the Tahitian pearl earrings her aunt had given her for graduation. The Ni`ihau shell necklace Mac had given her never came off anymore. Instead of a dress, she pulled on narrow black jeans and a black silk tank top, slipping her feet into the new slingbacks.

  She heard an unfamiliar thrumming sound and hurried to the window. A black helicopter was approaching, the wind off the props vibrating the air and muting everything but its powerful roar. It wove back and forth as it settled toward the ground, rippling, then flattening the grass in the open area between her house and the Abacans’ in prop wash. Lei ran out onto the porch, and her mouth fell open at the sight of Alika behind the controls, face obscured by mirrored sunglasses and flight helmet.