by Kathi Daley
“I stumbled onto a new lead, so I’m going to stay to check it out.”
He paused for another minute before saying he’d be in contact in a few days and then hung up.
Maybe he really was FBI or CIA. Or a spy of some other sort. I hadn’t seen anything more than his feet so far, but even the shoes he wore screamed espionage.
The man turned and headed toward the bathroom. I realized this was my chance to make my escape, so I crawled out from under the bed and quietly made my way to the front of the bungalow. I had just opened the door when I heard the water in the sink turn off. I quickly scrambled out, closing the door just a bit too loudly behind me. I hid behind some shrubs seconds before he opened the front door to look around. I could swear he looked right at me, but he didn’t approach, so perhaps he hadn’t seen me after all.
I waited a few minutes before leaving my hiding spot behind the shrubs. Then I hurried back to the lobby, where I’d left my staff radio. Drake would be expecting me to check in with him about the status of the pool and if I had any chance of being assigned a different post the following day I needed to avoid making him angry.
“So?” Kekoa asked as I handed her the key and retrieved the radio.
“I think you’re right about the guy. I’m not sure if he’s a good guy or a bad one, but he definitely seems to have business on the island, and while I hate to admit it, I suspect, based on the timing of Shredder’s visit, it has something to do with him. Do you have a pencil?”
Kekoa handed me a recently sharpened yellow #2. I carefully scribbled the lead over the surface of the paper I’d taken from the bungalow to see if I could pick up a clue from it. There was a word, although it was faint. I could only make out parts of the letters, but it appeared to say park. Was Kensington meeting someone in the park? Or maybe he was meeting someone named Park or even Parker? Or had he written parking garage and the second word hadn’t come through?
“There’s not enough here to tell us anything. I know you said Kensington was staying close to his bungalow, but have you noticed him leave or has anyone else visited him?”
“I haven’t seen him leave, but then, he wouldn’t necessarily have come through the lobby if he had, and as far as I know he hasn’t had any other visitors, although again, there’s no way I’d know if he did. The only reason I knew Shredder had visited was because I know him and I know Dolphin Bay isn’t a place he frequents, so when he walked by on the path outside the window, I was curious and followed him.”
Kekoa had a point. There were a lot of people coming and going here at all hours of the day. Unless something or someone stood out as odd chances were no one would notice.
“How about the phone?” I asked. “Has anyone called him on the resort phone?”
“Not that I know of. Kensington has a cell; most people do. The room phones are rarely used other than to call for room service, make a reservation at one of the restaurants, or schedule spa treatments.”
Kensington didn’t seem the sort to go in for spa treatments, but maybe he’d ordered from room service or made a dinner reservation. “Can you see if he’s made any of those calls?”
Kekoa hesitated. “Would it really tell you anything if he had?”
“Probably not, but aren’t you curious anyway?”
Kekoa sighed, but she did turn to her computer and begin to type in a series of commands. “You realize that one of these days your curiosity is going to get me fired?”
“All you’re doing is looking up guest reservations. I doubt you’re going to get fired even if someone figures out what you’re doing.”
“I hope you’re right. The last thing I need is to have to look for another job.” Kekoa looked at the screen in front of her. “It looks like Mr. Kensington has a reservation in the steak house for eight o’clock this evening.”
“How many people is the reservation for?”
“Two.”
“Reserve me a table for two at eight.”
“What about Elva’s party?”
“The party is at five. The seniors aren’t likely to linger once the food is served, so I’m sure the party will be over before eight.”
“Maybe, but we’re BBQing. It will seem odd if you don’t have anything, so if you go to the steak house at eight you’re going to have to eat two dinners.”
“I won’t eat much at the party. No one will notice if I just nibble. I’ll tell Luke not to eat much as well. Maybe if we see who Kensington is meeting we can find out what he’s up to.”
“He might not be up to anything other than a tropical vacation,” Kekoa reminded me.
“Maybe not, but my gut tells me he is, and if that something involves Shredder I want to know what it is.”
Kekoa shook her head. “It never ceases to amaze me how willing you are to totally disrupt your life simply to appease your curiosity.”
“Hey, you’re the one who started this whole thing by telling me that Shredder had visited the guy. What if Shredder is in some sort of trouble?” I glanced at the clock. “I should get back before Drake realizes I’m AWOL. I’ll see you at the party.”
Chapter 3
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Elva, happy birthday to you,” everyone sang.
Elva, who was dressed in a pretty pink and white muumuu with large flowers on the front, was positively beaming. She wasn’t only our next-door neighbor but a sweet woman Kekoa and I adored. I’d only known her a few years, but from what I could tell she didn’t have any family. Based on the happy glow that had pinkened her cheeks, she hadn’t been on the receiving end of a birthday celebration for a very long time.
“Thank you, everyone,” Elva said with tears on her cheeks. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”
“Open your presents,” Tammy Rhea ordered. “The big one with the orange paper is from Emmy Jean and me.”
Tammy Rhea recently had moved to the island to be near her sister, Emmy Jean Thornton, although she’d been well known to the group because she’d visited the island frequently before that. Tammy Rhea and Emmy Jean were flamboyant Southern ladies who were part of the senior sleuthing gang that had helped Luke and me track down two killers in the past year. I knew if the subject of the arm on the beach came up the sisters would jump onto a boat I had no intention of sailing, so I’d counseled both Cam and Kekoa not to mention it at the party.
“A wig?” Elva asked as she lifted the bright pink aberration from the box.
“It’s to go with the makeover me and Emmy Jean are going to give you,” Tammy Rhea explained.
Elva glanced at me and I shrugged. Tammy Rhea was sporting purple hair today. In the year I’d known her, she’d changed her hair color five times. Tammy Rhea was a well-endowed woman who liked to play up her assets by creating outrageous looks that ensured she’d never get lost in a crowd.
“Thank you for the thought, but I’m not sure pink hair will work on me,” Elva responded.
“Which is why Emmy Jean suggested the wig instead of permanent color. If you don’t like how you look after we have our spa day you can wash off the makeup and take off the wig.”
Kekoa picked up a gift card from the bottom of the box. “It says here that in addition to a makeover the day includes a massage and a pedicure. That’ll be nice, don’t you think?”
Elva looked more horrified than happy, but she agreed that a pedicure might be nice.
“Open mine next,” ten-year-old Malia said persuasively. Malia was a petite native Hawaiian who had moved to the complex with her Aunt Mary after the death of her mother. Elva, who had lost her only child many years ago, had bonded with the girl, taking on the role of honorary grandmother.
I watched as Elva opened the box holding a small throw Malia had knitted with Mary’s help. I could see the handcrafted item meant a lot to her. The throw was followed by a Fitbit from uberhealthy senior Beth Wasserman and a very pretty silk scarf from condo residents Kevin Green and Sean Trainor. Carina West, a hula
dancer who had specifically requested a night off to attend the party, gave Elva a vase that had been handmade by one of the locals who worked the craft fairs on the island. Several of Elva’s other friends gave her gift cards for local restaurants she favored.
By the time she’d worked through the entire pile of gifts several of the guests were gathering their belongings in preparation for heading home. I looked at my watch. It was only six-forty. There would be plenty of time for Luke and me to change and make it to the resort by eight.
“Now that Elva has opened her gifts I have an announcement to make,” Janice Furlong, the oldest of the senior women in attendance announced. Everyone stopped what they were doing. “RJ and I are getting married.”
RJ Clark was a fifty-five-year-old local newscaster who’d only recently begun dating seventy-five-year-old Janice.
“Married?” Beth asked.
I had to hand it to Janice. She’d decided at the ripe old age of seventy-five that she wanted to get married again and it looked as if she’d managed to do what she’d set out to do.
“A week from Saturday. RJ has a busy work schedule and at my age I don’t want to wait, so we’re going to elope, but I wanted you all to know.”
“But you can’t elope,” Emmy Jean, whose platinum-blond hair was teased so that it stood high on her head, insisted. “We all want to be there. We want to throw you a party. It’s the proper thing to do.”
“RJ doesn’t want a fuss.”
“We don’t need to fuss,” Emmy Jean said. “We can have something right here at the ranch, with just a few friends in attendance.”
Janice glanced at Luke.
“I’d be happy to have it here if that’s what you and RJ decide to do.”
“Then it’s settled,” Emmy Jean announced, clapping her hands together in such a way that her long purple fingernails reflected the overhead light. “What time are we meeting tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” I asked.
“We need to start planning. Say around noon?”
“I’m meeting with a man who’s interested in one of my horses tomorrow afternoon,” Luke informed her. “I probably won’t be home until five or even five-thirty.”
“And I have work until four-thirty,” I added.
“Then dinner it is,” Emmy Jean said. “We’ll meet here at six. If Luke will provide the meat the girls and I will bring the sides.”
I glanced helplessly at Luke while the senior women firmed up plans for the following day. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy spending time with them, but any time they could fabricate an excuse to spend time at Luke’s ranch they did so. Luke was a good guy who had pointed out on more than one occasion that he was happy to be able to bring a little adventure into the women’s lives, but there were times I found myself wishing he and I had a bit more time to ourselves.
Kekoa giggled. “I think the senior sleuthing brigade has you and Luke wrapped around their little fingers.”
“Tell me about it. At least all they have planned is a party and not sleuthing this time.”
“Speaking of sleuthing, you haven’t heard from Shredder, have you? I thought he’d be here.”
I frowned. I had to admit his absence from the party had bothered me. Shredder was quiet, but he seemed to enjoy socializing with the condo crowd. “No. I stopped by his place before I came out to the ranch, but it was dark. Wherever he went he took Riptide,” I said, referring to Shredder’s dog.
“Then everything must be okay,” Kekoa concluded.
“I guess.” I actually wasn’t so sure. I was about to say as much when my phone beeped to let me know I had a new text. It was from Jason, saying the arm I’d found had been confirmed to have belonged to Blaze Whitmore.
“Is there a problem?” Kekoa asked.
I glanced up from the phone. “No. There isn’t a problem.” I quickly explained what had been in Jason’s text.
“Arm? What arm?” Emmy Jean said from behind me.
Dang. I’d been hoping to get through the party without bringing the seniors into what I was certain would turn out to be a messy murder investigation.
“It’s nothing,” I tried.
“I heard you say that your brother confirmed the arm belonged to Blaze Whitmore,” Emmy Jean insisted. She turned and looked at the crowd. “Did you hear that? Lani found an arm!”
Of course once that announcement was made I was forced to give an abbreviated accounting of the day’s events. Luckily, I was able to keep the questions to a minimum and send the ladies on their way in time for Luke and me to make our reservation.
******
The steak house at the Dolphin Bay was considered one of the nicest on the island, but this was still Hawaii, so dress tended toward dressy casual rather than formal. Luke had changed into a dress shirt and dark slacks and I had decided on a short red halter dress paired with one of the few pairs of heels I owned. I didn’t have a lot of time to fuss with my hair, so I pulled it back on one side before applying a light coat of mascara and some rose-colored lip gloss.
“Seems like the party went well,” Luke commented as we drove to the resort.
“Elva really seemed happy. I’m so glad Kekoa thought to arrange it.”
“The food looked wonderful. Too bad we couldn’t eat much of it.”
I was sure I’d heard Luke’s stomach growl. Not that my own hadn’t been complaining as well. “The food at the steak house is really good,” I assured him. “I’m betting you’ll be glad you didn’t fill up at the party. If you take the next left you can park around back. It’s an employee lot, but it’s closer to the steak house than the public one and I have a feeling I’m not going to want to walk far in these shoes.”
Luke turned where I indicated.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he began. “You look absolutely beautiful and very sexy, but I’m sort of surprised you wore heels. I’ve heard you liken them to a torture device.”
“I do. Usually. I bought these shoes on a whim in Honolulu a few years ago and rarely have reason to wear them. When I realized we were going to be dining in the steak house I figured what the heck. Of course my feet are already killing me, so you may have to carry me back to the truck at the end of the night.”
Luke grinned. “I’d be happy to.”
Luckily, he found a parking spot near the front of the lot so the walk to the steak house was a relatively short one. It was a warm night, with only a gentle breeze. I could hear the sound of the waves in the distance as we traveled the well-lit walkway that curved throughout the whole resort. I leaned my head on Luke’s shoulder as we made our way to the entrance of the oceanfront restaurant. He and I spent a lot of time together and ate out frequently, but we’d settled into a comfortable routine in which we rarely had an actual date night.
“I almost didn’t recognize you,” the host, who I was certain had never seen me in anything other than a bathing suit or shorts and a tee, commented. “Do you have a reservation?”
“We do. It looks like you’re busy.”
“Packed. It’s Saturday night.”
I looked around the crowded waiting area. “So I assume requesting a specific table is out of the question?”
“You assume right. We already have all the tables set up for the reservations we have. I see you’re at table seven.”
“Is a man named Vince Kensington dining here this evening?”
“Yes. He’s already seated at table twenty-eight.”
I didn’t know for certain, but it didn’t sound like tables seven and twenty-eight were anywhere near each other. How was I supposed to spy on the man if he was seating on the other side of a crowded room? “I don’t suppose you have a two-top closer to table twenty-eight that we can trade for?”
The host gave me an odd look, which I supposed I understood given the situation. “Are the two of you together?”
“No. Not at all. Never mind. Can I take a look at the table you have reserved for us before we’re seated?”
; “Certainly, if you’d like.”
I stepped around the desk used by the host and cashier and entered the restaurant. I tried to find Kensington in the crowd. I’d only had a brief glimpse of him when he’d looked out the door of his bungalow while I hid in the bushes, but I was pretty sure he was the man who was sitting alone near the window. If Luke and I took the table to which we’d been assigned we would be too far away to hear anything that was said there, so I thought we might as well bag the idea and try to figure out what Kensington was up to another way.
“Maybe we’ll wait and come back when you’re less crowded,” I said to the host.
“We have people waiting, so whatever you decide is fine with me.”
I looked at Luke. “Should we just grab something at the beach bar?”
“That sounds good to me. I’m starving, so quicker is better.”
I turned back to the host. “It’s fine to give the table away.”
“Very well.” He looked at his list and called the next twosome to the front.
I pulled Luke aside. “Based on the seating chart, Kensington is the man sitting alone near the last window before the hallway leading to the restrooms. I’m going to go pay a quick visit to the ladies’ room so I can at least snap a photo of him. Why don’t you head over to the beach bar and grab us a table? It’s likely to be crowded as well. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”
“Okay, but be careful. If the guy is a fed, as Kekoa thinks, he’ll have been trained to be aware of his surroundings. He may not appreciate having his photo taken.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Luke left the restaurant while I headed toward the restroom. I’d decided it would be easiest to walk past Kensington, then take the photo from the hallway, so I made an effort to look directly in front of me as I passed his table. I planned to go into the restroom in case he happened to have been watching me. I waited a couple of minutes and then reentered the hallway, pausing when I saw a second man had joined Kensington. This man’s back was to me, but based on the long, bleached blond hair, I was pretty sure Kensington’s dinner companion was Shredder. That would explain why he hadn’t been at Elva’s party.
