Paradise Crime Thrillers Box Set

by Toby Neal

  Jake looked around at the urban sprawl outside of Hilo’s old town area. All vegetation was bright green, saturated by the Big Island’s frequent east side rains. Traffic was heavy on the busy freeway going into town. Hilo had the look of a place that had once been sleepy and small, but had sprawled into utilitarian growth.

  Jake programmed the South Hilo PD location into his phone’s GPS, and fifteen minutes later was pulling up to a small, older building wedged between a Vietnamese nail salon and a laundromat. After parking, he pulled open a bulletproof glass door covered in peeling reflective coating, entering a tiny lobby guarded by a duty officer.

  The individual was the size of a mountain and held a Sudoku tablet in front of him. He looked up at Jake and narrowed his eyes. “Help you?”

  Jake showed his Security Solutions ID, introduced himself and his errand. “Our firm has been hired to find a missing person. I’m looking for Julie Weathersby. Anyone assigned to the case that I can interview?”

  The behemoth typed in the name on his computer as Jake surveyed a row of hard wooden chairs, scuffed linoleum, and a crowded bulletin board. He recognized his client’s face on a missing persons printout thumbtacked to the board, issued by a company called FindUsNow.com. Her sweet-looking smile stood out among the most-wanted posters and a homemade ad for pet sitting. “Social Media can Find Us Now! Forward to a friend on Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook!”

  The Weathersbys had probably employed that company, too. Jake took one of the several flyers and tucked it into his pocket.

  “Detectives Wong and Freitan have that case. They are on their way back from the field.” The giant pointed to a hard wooden chair. “Sit and wait.”

  Jake sat and waited.

  Sitting and waiting was not something he enjoyed.

  He worked his phone first, checking in with the office on Oahu to report that he had arrived and was meeting Sophie; then he logged into his case file. He already had one started for the Weathersby girl; he added a quick phone photo of her missing persons poster. He ran a search for FindUsNow.com and checked out the write-up they’d done on Julie. Apparently, she wasn’t big on any social media but Instagram; her last photo was of the big lava tube in Volcanoes National Park.

  Bored, he stepped outside and got into the Jeep. He extracted a hand exerciser and a couple of heavy duty rubber bands from his bag, and using those, with his seat tipped back, he was able to run through a fairly complete upper-body workout. He was just getting ready to do another set of curl reps when an extra-duty truck towing an ATV on a trailer pulled up.

  A male and female detective exited the truck along with Sophie and her dog.

  Everyone looked overheated from being on the lava; their shirts were sweaty and their skin was gleaming. Sophie, dressed in a black tank and ripstop hiking pants, still managed to look stunning even with dark circles under her big brown eyes. He hated how she didn’t take care of herself.

  Jake opened the Jeep’s door and stepped out. “Sophie!”

  Ginger yanked loose from her owner to run over to him, thrusting her nose into his crotch and then lashing him with her sturdy tail.

  Sophie grinned at the sight. “Someone is happy to see you.”

  “At least Ginger knows a good thing when she sees it.” Jake joked. He wanted to grab Sophie and kiss her; he made do with a casual half wave, catching Ginger’s collar to drag the Lab, now investigating a trash can, back over to her mistress.

  Sophie took the leash and introduced him to the cops. “Detective Freitan and Detective Wong, this is my partner Jake Dunn. The detectives responded to the crime scene I found, and were kind enough to bring me here.”

  Jake sized up the two. Freitan looked like a multi-ethnic Wonder Woman; tall with a curvy build and a shiny thick braid, her handshake wrung his hand like a truck driver’s as she ran an eyeball over him in a frank, full body check-out. Wong was wiry and short and disliked Jake on sight, judging by the squint of his eyes and his refusal to shake.

  Jake forged ahead, adopting a confident manner. “Just the people I came to see. My agency, Security Solutions, has been retained to investigate the disappearance of Julie Weathersby. I hear you’re the detectives on the case.”

  “Yeah. We are looking into that one. It’s early days yet. Her parents seem a little overprotective. She’s probably holed up with a dude, which can be fun.” The detective licked her lips and showed her teeth like she wanted to take a bite of him. “Can’t blame a girl for getting swept away by the right man.”

  Jake ignored the byplay and grinned his most charming. “Well, since my friend Sophie here just found you a big case with that body dump, maybe you wouldn’t mind letting us run with the ball on the missing persons a bit.”

  “Sure thing.” Freitan narrowed her eyes at Wong, who had opened his mouth to object. “Fred, the Weathersby case is back burner right now with this other discovery. Why not let the private dicks run with it?” She emphasized “dicks” in a way that made Jake squirm internally, though with an effort, he kept his expression neutral and his stance relaxed.

  Wong gave an almost imperceptible head jerk towards the bull pen area through a closed gate. “We can give them what we have, at least.”

  Chapter Five

  “Let me just tie Ginger up and get her out of the way,” Sophie told Jake and the detectives.

  The three of them waited while Sophie secured Ginger’s leash to a handy little railing and provided her with a dish of water. They filed inside, weaving through a work area of tight cubicles to a section in the back. There was barely room for the four of them to wedge into Wong and Freitan’s office area.

  Sophie’s arm brushed Jake’s and she felt a surprising zing! of sensation as her partner leaned forward, his elbows on his knees in the cramped cubicle. He was trying to peer at Detective Freitan’s computer to see the case file she had pulled up on Julie.

  “Never underestimate the power of the rich parents of a white girl,” Freitan drawled, glancing back at them. “Wonder what would have happened if this haole girl had been local and poor. We’d still be trying to fit her in with all our other cases. It’s actually a good thing you showed up when you did.”

  Sophie pulled her arm away from Jake’s. “Is there a problem with missing people on the Big Island?”

  “Yes,” Wong printed the meager Weathersby file, and caught the pages spitting out of the printer, slipping them into a blank folder. “A lot of people go missing here. For a lot of reasons. This island is a big area to cover and being understaffed is one reason we have trouble closing cases.”

  “But we seldom have anything like that body dump you found,” Freitan said. “Let me put it differently: never have we had something like that. A whole new level. I’ve got a call into WITSEC and it’s looking like there might be something to your mob hit idea, because a couple of Marshals are coming to meet with us in an hour. They wouldn’t discuss it further, but that they’re making the trip says a whole lot.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that I might have been right,” Sophie said. “Doesn’t make sense for anyone to kill the whole family.”

  “Maybe they all saw something. Who knows?” Freitan shrugged. “We’ll do the best we can, as usual. Now as to this missing Weathersby girl . . . we went to her last known camping spot the day we got the report. She was staying at Volcanoes Park. When we showed her picture around, no one had seen her. Her equipment was gone. She had a permit for two nights; she had arrived by unknown means. That’s as far as we got.”

  “Any leads from different campsites? Her parents said she often found other travelers to group together with,” Jake said.

  “We only had the case a few days. That’s as far as we got with it.”

  Jake’s arm brushed Sophie’s again as he reached for the folder from Wong. She shoved her chair back and away to get space. Freitan turned a level stare on her. “You guys a thing?”

  “A thing?” Sophie frowned. Some sort of vernacular. The woman’s pursed lips and ra
ised brows implied it was sexual.

  “Yeah, we are.” Jake put a big hand on Sophie’s knee and squeezed.

  Sophie froze. Was he saying . . . they were a couple?

  “Too bad,” Freitan smiled, a long slow smile. “I like a little white meat now and again.”

  “By the sweat of Ramses!” Sophie swore, all of the innuendoes coming together in an excruciating moment of mortification that heated her face and chest. “There is no sexual relationship between me and my partner!” She took hold of Jake’s wrist, but it took both hands to pry his grip off her leg. “You may indulge your sexual interest in Jake if he is agreeable. He has frequent liaisons.”

  “I don’t think he’s agreeable,” Freitan said regretfully. “But he might be if you joined us.”

  “Hey. I’m right here, Freitan, and we’re on the clock,” Wong said. “Keep your pants zipped in our cubicle, please.”

  Jake stood up. His face was expressionless. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I do believe I’ve just been sexually harassed, and I can’t say I like it overmuch, Detective Freitan. Is this all the information you’ve got?”

  Sophie stood as well, her eyes down, fighting the urge to bolt. Why had Jake said that about them being a couple? Was he claiming a faux relationship with her to fend off Freitan’s advances? And why did it bother her that he did?

  “That’s all. Hope you get somewhere with it, big boy.” Freitan was unfazed by Jake’s rebuke to judge by her insouciant tone. There might even have been another innuendo hidden in her parting words, but Sophie didn’t want to figure it out. She squeezed past Jake and did a very rapid walk, not technically a run, through the bull pen and out the front door of the station.

  Outside, Sophie rushed over to Ginger and untied her. She tossed away the remaining water and stowed the foldable dish in her backpack. She felt more than heard Jake come up behind her.

  “That was embarrassing.”

  Sophie didn’t look up from fiddling with the dog’s leash. Her skin still felt hot and prickly.

  “I think we should go look at Weathersby’s earlier camp sites.” Jake’s tone was nonchalant, as if being propositioned for a threesome was a normal event. Maybe, for him, it was. The thought made her stomach hurt. “It seems like these guys barely got started and didn’t really take the case seriously. I think there’s a lot of room to develop some leads.”

  “Yes. The campsites seem like a good place to begin.” Sophie straightened and tugged the dog’s leash. “Perhaps I can camp tonight in whatever park we end up in.”

  “I have no intention of anything but a hot shower and a soft bed tonight,” Jake said. “And you look like you could use one or both, too.”

  “I’m sure Detective Freitan would be happy to share hers with you.” Sophie wished she could take the words back the second they were out of her mouth. She tweaked Ginger’s leash and headed for the Jeep.

  “Jealous?” Jake sounded almost cheerful. “Because I think I made it clear I wasn’t interested in her.”

  If only she were quicker at repartee! Sophie’s tongue felt thick and her throat choked with inarticulate exclamations that didn’t clarify her confusion about Jake and his behavior one bit. “Son of a yak!” she muttered. She loaded her backpack into the rear area, secured Ginger on the back seat, and took her place in front beside her partner. He started the rental, and they roared out of the South Hilo Police Department parking lot with more throttle than necessary.

  The open road leading out of Hilo led toward a campground in the Waimea area, where Julie Weathersby had stayed before Volcanoes National Park, where she’d disappeared. The wind blowing through the open vehicle gradually swept the awkwardness away. Sophie enjoyed the plethora of bright flowers, tall grasses, and overarching tropical trees as they drove.

  “I wish I didn’t get drawn into these situations,” she said, and the wind whipped her words away.

  “What?” Jake shouted.

  Sophie glanced into the back seat of the Jeep. Ginger’s eyes were slitted shut as the breeze ruffled her fur. The dog looked totally content. If only life were even an eighth as simple for her as it was for her dog.

  “I wish I didn’t keep getting into these things. Body dumps. Missing people. So much violence.”

  “That’s the nature of the job. You could always go back to working behind a computer.” Jake’s gaze was compassionate. He felt sorry for her. It was not acceptable.

  “I’m well aware of that, Jake Dunn. I have chosen this path, and for some reason I am here to help find answers, help people who cannot help themselves. I thought I was going to be a tourist for once, that’s all. I feel like my walkabout has been hijacked. First by the body dump, then by you and this case.”

  “I’m sorry.” His hand landed on her leg for the second time. She removed it with both of hers and set it back on the steering wheel.

  “That’s quite enough of that. We are not a ‘thing,’ Jake. And I don’t know why you said we were.”

  Jake was silent. Sophie sneaked a glance at him, and his profile was stony. She couldn’t leave it alone. “I don’t understand why you said that we were a couple.”

  “I was just trying to get Freitan off my back.”

  “But it did not slow her down a bit.”

  “No, it did not.” Jake’s knuckles gleamed white on the wheel. “That was awkward. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.”

  “Yes, you made me uncomfortable. I accept your apology. Freitan was inappropriate.” Sophie hated how stiff and wooden she sounded.

  “Would it be so bad?”

  “What?”

  “If we were a couple. A thing.”

  Sophie glanced at him. That muscle in his jaw looked like a cable. His gunmetal eyes were glued to the road. His arms were so tight she wondered that he didn’t break the steering wheel. She glimpsed a smear of blue ink on the inside of his arm near the elbow. Was that where she’d written her number?

  “It would not work. We . . . irritate each other.” Sophie’s heart was pounding so hard she felt it in her temples.

  “And yet . . .”

  “And yet, what?” She turned to face him.

  “And yet. That’s all I’m saying.” He refused to look at her.

  She flounced around in the seat, fiddled with her seatbelt. “I would never be one of your . . .bed buddies, Jake.”

  “Nor would I be one of yours. I told you that when you propositioned me. Remember?” His eyes seared her. Gray was just the wrong word for them. They were definitely silver. Silver with blue.

  “Oh. That. I was drunk.” That awful prickling on her chest and neck had returned. “Drinking lowers inhibitions. Everyone knows that. That’s why I don’t drink.”

  “And sometimes they call booze a truth serum. Dutch courage. Drinking gets you to tell what’s really going on. Were you telling the truth that day on Maui, Sophie, when you asked me to have sex with you?”

  Sophie couldn’t breathe. All this air whipping around, and she couldn’t breathe. “I can’t be in a relationship right now. I told Alika the same thing.”

  “That slick asshole. I knew he was making a move.”

  “Alika’s not an asshole. He is a good person. Really good.”

  “And I’m not?”

  “You know you’re not, Jake.” Sophie didn’t flinch when she met his eyes. “You’re selfish. Sometimes you cheat. You’re a dirty fighter. You like this line of work for the thrills and danger, not because you enjoy helping people.”

  “I like helping just fine. Helping people is fun, and I like having fun. And as far as good—I could be good to you, Sophie. So good.”

  The Jeep wandered across the center line as their eyes locked.

  Jake overcorrected. They wove a bit, and Ginger yelped from the back seat.

  “I think that’s the turnoff to the park.” Sophie pointed. Jake turned the vehicle down the side road, and made no further comment.

  Sophie exhaled a long slow breath.

  “So
good,” he said again, and Sophie shut her eyes because she could feel the shape of the words on her skin.

  Chapter Six

  Jake turned the wheel, heading down into the park. The narrow, two-lane road wove along the side of a canyon draped in varying shades of vegetation. He unclenched his hands on the wheel—they’d begun to cramp.

  That was his big move? Grabbing her leg and pretending they were “a thing” in front of those detectives?

  Smooth one, Jake. Nice. She was really impressed by your promise to “make it good.”

  Jake sneaked a look at Sophie. Her face was turned away as she looked out the window and her eyes were shut, but blotchy color showed on the golden skin of her neck.

  She was blushing.

  He’d gotten to her.

  Yeah! His opening move had sucked, but she was thinking about what he’d said.

  It was a start. He could work with it. The key to success was exploiting every angle toward an objective. And his objective had just shown a chink in her defenses.

  They reached the bottom of the canyon and a small parking lot beneath the high, graceful arch of a freeway overpass. That bridge spanned both the canyon and a small river that tumbled over rocks and between banks of tall native grass.

  Jake pulled the Jeep into a parking spot and they sat for a moment, surveying the park.

  A camping area toward where the riverbank met the ocean was clearly marked. Off to the right, tucked up against the steep wall of the canyon, hunkered a cement block bathroom. A brisk wind blew in from the sea, smelling of the ocean. Jake’s nostrils flared instinctively, taking in the salty goodness.

  Sophie gestured toward a small group of tents clustered in the designated camping zone. “We should begin by canvassing there. You have a photo of our client?”

  “Sure do.” Jake took out his phone and texted a photo of their client to Sophie.

  Julie Weathersby was five foot six, one hundred and thirty pounds, with light brown hair and blue eyes. She had freckles on her nose and a hopeful smile with the perfect teeth of good orthodontia. In the photo, she wore hiking clothes and carried the backpack she’d disappeared with.