Paradise Crime Thrillers Box Set

by Toby Neal

  “You better come down here.”

  Moments later, Lei leaned over Sophie’s shoulder as Sophie showed her the list of payments. “Pono’s out running down something for the case. What do you think these payments are?”

  “Well, the initials are all different and the dates are all different, and the amounts are all different. But see?” Sophie pointed to the screen. “Many of these initials recur, either monthly or just every so often. And look at the amounts. Anything from five hundred to two thousand dollars. Nothing too huge, but they’re consistent.” Sophie glanced up at Lei. “I think we’re looking at Mano’s side job. He was a blackmailer.” Sophie pushed her chair back so she could gaze at her friend. “Was this what you were referring to when you mentioned a ‘black book’ to Taggart?”

  “Exactly.” Lei sat down in an office chair beside Sophie. “One of the witnesses we interviewed about Mano, an associate at his firm, implied that Mano dealt in information—that he supplemented and strengthened his real estate development business through shady dealings. I wasn’t sure what that meant until now.”

  “Well, do you think any of these initials match possible blackmail victims? Victims who might have turned against Mano? Unfortunately, there are a lot of initials here.”

  Lei shook her head. “I hope it will be easier than that. All we need to find is someone involved with the Hui whose initials are also on this list. It’s unlikely that a completely unrelated blackmail victim would have chosen to meet Mano at the Kakela site.”

  Sophie turned back to the computer and began to scroll. “Let’s begin by looking for PM and BT.” They scrolled through, but none of the known board members or staffers’ initials were on the list. “Unfortunately, we have to consider the possibility that these initials are coded,” Sophie said. “He could have an additional decoding key stored elsewhere. It would make sense with how relatively easy this file was to find. And another thing—have you considered that there must be a cache where he keeps the materials to back up his blackmail?”

  “We’ve already searched his home, and we have a warrant to get into his safe deposit box. The tricky thing is that he didn’t have a central place where all of his accounts and bank information were stored. I had to hunt for it with the help of his housekeeper.”

  “So Mano was single?”

  “A widower. Wife died two years ago. Cancer.”

  “By the timing, the blackmail began a year before her death. I wonder if this blackmail business is related somehow,” Sophie said.

  Lei was working her phone with her thumbs. “I’m updating Pono on all this.”

  “I have always thought that knowing motive can help give us a clear idea of who benefits from the crime. In a situation like this, knowing why Mano was blackmailing could help point to his killer.”

  Lei glanced at Sophie. “In this case, I think we should stay focused on concrete police work, like finding the decryption key and tracking down these initials. I would like that file emailed to me so Pono and I can include it in Mano’s case jacket, and discuss it with Captain Omura.”

  Sophie nodded, accepting her friend’s leadership on the case.

  “And I have some other news.” Lei spun back and forth in her chair to discharge the same sort of restless energy that Sophie felt on occasion. “Pono and I met with Dr. Gregory over at the medical examiner’s office. Mano was killed with the rock we identified. Cause of death was blunt force trauma.”

  “No surprise there.” Sophie raised her brows.

  “No, but he found an unidentified hair stuck in Mano’s blood on the body. We ran it already—not in the system. But if we can locate that person, we have some good forensic evidence to close the case.”

  Sophie was still sifting through the next computer when Pono carried in a box containing two more. “The warrant came through for Taggart’s computer,” he said, setting the heavy box down on the table next to her work area. Sophie blinked up at him. Her eyes felt gritty from staring at the screen for hours. The external sound-sensing feature on her headphones had muted the concerto she was listening to when Pono spoke to her.

  “Hey, how long have you been down here?” Pono said, surveying the dimly lit room. The other officers had left long ago.

  Sophie pushed back her chair and leaned back to stretch. “Not sure.”

  “Well, it’s quitting time.” He pointed at the small, square write blocker device. “Why don’t you get that thing going, and come home with me for a home-cooked meal while it clones Taggart’s hard drive? You can always come back here after, if you’re feeling the urge to be a workaholic.”

  Sophie’s stomach rumbled in agreement with that plan. “That sounds perfect,” she said gratefully. “I’d be happy to accept.”

  Pono rattled off his address and she captured it with the notes feature on her phone.

  It wasn’t long before she was sitting down to a meal that the frighteningly capable Tiare Kaihale had “just thrown together.”

  Sophie picked up her spoon and dug into a savory beef stew laden with chunks of pineapple and Molokai sweet potato ladled over a mountain of dense, sticky white rice. Around the table, Ikaika and Maile, Pono and Tiare’s children, partook with equal gusto.

  “So…how are you kids doing?” Sophie asked. She hadn’t spent much time around school-age children, and wasn’t sure how to engage with them. “What are your interests?”

  Young Ikaika, Pono’s boy child, piped up. “I got moved to forward position on my soccer team,” he said proudly, cheeks bulging with a bite of stew. Maile, not to be outdone, added that her hula halau was competing in the children’s division finals at the Merrie Monarch hula festival on the Big Island next year.

  Sophie smiled, listening to and watching the lively by-play of the family around the table. Tiare’s work as a nurse at the hospital kept her busy, but not so busy that she hadn’t started another business as a wedding planner, in addition to helping teach hula and being active in the couple’s church. As the meal concluded, Sophie touched Pono on the arm. “You are a lucky man,” she said. “Never forget it.”

  Pono smiled, that big white grin she was becoming fond of. “Not just lucky. Blessed. And grateful, every day.”

  Sophie unbuckled her seatbelt as the short Hawaiian Airlines flight from Maui parked at the gate in Honolulu Airport.

  She had barely had time to boot up her laptop and begin to take a look at the cloned hard drive of Brett Taggart’s computer. It had not been worth the effort to boot the thing up when the flight was a mere thirty minutes, but she had not been able to resist the lure of at least having a quick look at his hard drive, searching for anything to do with the Kakela site.

  And of course, it was not enough time to do anything but determine that Taggart was not a very organized record-keeper on his PC.

  A twinge of apprehension tightened her abs as Sophie made her way down the jetway to the exit. She did not have a checked bag, only the backpack she carried for the quick overnight trip back to Oahu to fulfill her laser scar removal treatment. Security Solutions’ VP Bix was picking her up, and she wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

  Bix was driving one of the white Honda SUVs that were part of Security Solutions’ fleet of vehicles, each equipped with a removable magnetic logo on the doors. Jake had told her that the company had used market research to decide what kind of vehicle to buy in bulk in Hawaii, and white Honda CRVs were the answer. They looked like they were owned by people who resided on the island, but were anonymous enough not to attract attention.

  “Welcome home,” Bix said, as she slid into the passenger seat and pushed her backpack into the rear.

  “Thank you for picking me up.”

  “An in-person situation report was overdue.” Bix was all business, as usual. Her supervisor was dressed down in chinos and a polo shirt, but he would have fit in easily at the FBI with his clean-cut style and no nonsense, protocol-driven mindset.

  “I agree. I want to sort through some of the
things that have been happening, and get your advice as far as my evolving role in the murder investigation,” Sophie said.

  “Good. Let me take you to lunch.”

  Sophie hadn’t eaten that morning, still full from Tiare’s delicious stew, but her early morning run, along beautiful Sugar Beach outside of the cash-only condo she had taken under the Mary Watson identity, had helped burn calories, and now she was hungry again.

  It was remarkable and annoying to her how the body kept requiring fuel, no matter how much turmoil the emotions were in.

  They went to Zippy’s, a local chain restaurant, and Sophie unburdened herself about the case, telling Bix from start to current situation how things were going.

  “I worry that you are becoming indispensable to this investigation, and your priorities as a hired security agent, are becoming blurred. It is MPD’s investigation now. The Hui’s contract with us ends in a few days. They have no purpose in continuing the contract, since, as you pointed out, the site has already been looted.”

  “Literally, on my watch,” Sophie said ruefully as she poked at the Caesar salad with ahi strips she had ordered. “I was shocked that Magnuson didn’t fire me after that happened. I think Lei talked them into keeping me on.”

  “Well, you always have to keep in mind now that you are a private contractor, and your priority is what the client pays you for,” Bix said. His jaw was a tight line. “You’re done with that case the minute your contract expires.”

  “Absolutely.” The word tasted like sawdust in Sophie’s mouth.

  Sophie swished down another pain pill outside of Connor Remarkian’s swanky Pendragon Arches apartment—the laser treatment to minimize the edges of her skin graft had left her face swollen and achy. Not the best time to see him, but one or the other of them had been recovering from wounds for the duration of their relationship.

  She rang the bell, glancing at the overhead surveillance cam in the hall, remembering the first time she’d stood outside this door. She was never sure if he would answer the door, or his assistant, or even if it would be a maid—but today it was Connor himself, and his face lit up at the sight of her. She had always wondered about that American phrase, wondered what it meant, what it would look like to see. The widening of his eyes and the broad smile that transformed Connor’s face was a clear answer.

  “I wondered if I would see you again, after our talk on Maui,” Connor said. “Come in.”

  Sophie stepped across the threshold, and he hugged her. She sighed as she relaxed into him, the physical touch a balm to her jangled nerves and the pain that haunted her from unhealed wounds.

  Finally, she stepped back. “I hunted you for too long for you to get rid of me that easily,” she said. “I need your help. I’m here on island for a personal medical reason, but I need a secure place to use DAVID for the investigation.”

  If Connor was disappointed, he hid it well. He closed the door behind her and locked it as Anubis, his dignified Doberman, sniffed at Sophie and thrust his head under her hand for a pet. She stroked Anubis’s silky head, touching the tips of his cropped, pointed ears with a delicate hand. She missed Ginger. She was definitely going to spend the night at her place, and pick up her dog from the kennel where she’d been boarding the Lab.

  “We will need to use my secure work room, in that case.”

  “How often do you check for listening devices in here?” Sophie said.

  “Daily. And the other side, twice a day.” Connor smiled, and she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to more than kiss him. But nothing had changed. He was still the Ghost, she was still conflicted about that, and the closer they got, the more difficult it all became.

  He led her through the immaculately appointed apartment into his bedroom—which might have been suggestive if she hadn’t known that it was an entrance to his other world.

  Soon they were sitting down in Connor’s secret computer lab. Sophie opened her laptop and plugged it into his cable network. “I have never asked you what software you use for…those activities.”

  Connor was sitting next to her in a second ergonomic office chair. “I have a software program that has unique hacking abilities. And that’s all I’m going to say on that subject.”

  “Does it have a name?”

  Connor smiled. “Where do you think the name Ghost comes from?”

  Sophie shook her head, smiling too. “I guess it’s better not to know.”

  “Well, if something ever happens to me, I have the program stored in a safe deposit box. I will put you on as a cosigner.”

  Sophie turned to face him fully, seriousness pulling down her mouth. “Don’t say that. I can’t bear to hear you say that.”

  “It almost seems like you care.” Connor’s blue-green eyes were bleak.

  “You know I care. That’s why this hurts.”

  He swiveled his chair abruptly away, facing the bank of computers. “What I do with what’s mine is my choice. You’re the only one who knows about the Ghost, and I have to tell someone. I have to let someone in on all of this in case it all goes to shit…in case I’m caught.”

  “Stop it.” Tears filled Sophie’s eyes. “Please don’t say that. Don’t tell me this.”

  He shrugged, not looking at her. “It is what it is. Now, tell me what you’ve got here to work on.”

  Clearly he didn’t want to talk about this minefield of a topic any longer. Sophie blew out a breath and refocused on the cloned hard drive she’d imported onto her laptop. She filled him in on getting it from Taggart. “I want to run a deep background on Taggart with DAVID while I’m searching this clone of his computer.”

  “Well, this is the most secure Internet location you could find, short of the Pentagon, and maybe more secure than that,” Connor said. “I have some things to do, myself. Let’s get to work.”

  Sophie nodded. She removed her Bose headphones from her bag and plugged them in, booting up the laptop, and set two powerful programs to work as her fingers flew over the keyboard.

  It was remarkably companionable to sit beside Connor and work, both lost in their own digital worlds—together. Equal.

  The hours rolled by quietly, and the longer Sophie spent in Connor’s inner sanctum, the more it felt like home.

  Sophie left the computer mining for information on Taggart’s cloned hard drive while she and Connor went to dinner. Over a steak and a glass of a good Merlot at a restaurant within walking distance of the apartment building, Connor lifted his glass.

  “To great partnerships.”

  Sophie touched her glass to his, and enjoyed the chime of the crystal. “I like your office,” she said. “I like working with you. And I don’t say that to too many people. You know when to keep quiet.”

  Connor smiled. “I was going to say the same of you. A year ago, I would not have imagined letting anyone into my office, and now, I just know how much I’m going to miss you when you aren’t there.”

  “I hate it when you say things like that. I feel like I don’t know what to say back to you, like no matter what I say, it’s the wrong thing. A disappointment.” Sophie sipped her wine to hide the tremble of her lips.

  “You’re overthinking it. You can always just tell me what your first thoughts are, and I am always glad to know what they are.”

  Sophie ducked her head and tugged at the curls that were still too short to cover the angry-looking skin graft that marred her temple.

  Connor switched to lighter topics, and they discussed the politics of the Internet and ended up on the case that Sophie was investigating. “It was a breakthrough to get Mano’s record of blackmail payments,” Sophie said. “But I think it is a coded file. The initials don’t match anyone we know that had contact with Mano.”

  Connor’s smile was deadly. “Ghost can crack that code. Give me the file when we get back to the apartment.”

  Back at the apartment, Sophie transferred the file to a stick drive and gave it to Connor. “I’m sure I’m not supposed to be doing this, even thou
gh you are my boss. I signed confidentiality agreements with the MPD. But I think this is the fastest way for us to get answers that will break this thing open.”

  Connor nodded. “Agreed.”

  While Connor got his software working on the blackmail file, Sophie reviewed Taggart’s hard drive. An hour or so later, she had identified the ground penetrating radar report. A residual signature showed the file had been copied. She surfed through Taggart’s email and found the file sent to an anonymous numbered account. She set DAVID to apply a tracker program to uncover that destination, and it pinged back within minutes.

  “I have a location for the computer that received a copy of the GPR report from Taggart’s computer,” Sophie said, breaking the deep and comfortable silence between them. “And it’s here on Oahu.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sophie woke and rose from the pretty little rattan bed in her apartment, greeted rapturously by Ginger. The big yellow Lab could wag her tail with her whole body, and that was exactly what the big dog did, hopping and slobbering all over Sophie.

  Sophie petted the Lab and padded into her little kitchen, plugging in the electric kettle for tea. In spite of the breakthrough last night, Sophie was dogged with a feeling of frustrated futility. Connor was still working on breaking the code of the blackmail file, and she’d kissed him good night and left, contacting Lei on Maui and sending her the IP location of the computer that had received Taggart’s email of the GPR report.

  Giving over that information but not being able to go on the raid to see what they unearthed reminded Sophie again of the limitations of being a private contractor.

  She drank her tea and took Ginger out for a run. Soon she was jogging on the beach at Ala Moana Park with the dog. The chattering of mynah birds and doves waking up in the park, the morning sun glittering off of the tall, mirrored high-rises of Waikiki, and a little wind picking up across the turquoise water all soothed her spirits.