Murder and a Blue Hawaii (A Blue Hawaii Mystery Book 1)

by Elizabeth Autumn

  “Plus, Madison’s organized and pays attention to detail,” I said. “She has to be to have organized the pirate convention. But the first time I met her, she had lost part of her costume.”

  “So?” asked Maya.

  “That means she was caught off guard that night. Something hadn’t gone according to plan. She lost her pirate hat before I found Bentley’s body—what if the hat wasn’t the only thing that she lost? What if more things kept going wrong for her that night?

  “Madison threatened Bentley with a bread knife, and when that didn’t work, strangled him with fishing wire. Then, she took the noose from her costume to make it look like one of the pirates had killed him.”

  “That’s insane,” said Maya. “She’d be implicating herself by doing that.”

  “Or making herself look innocent,” I countered. “By losing her noose, she can claim that someone stole it from her. Someone else used the noose to kill Bentley—but it couldn’t have been Madison, because she didn’t have the noose. Or, so she wanted people to think.”

  Maya thought. “I see your point. That makes a lot of sense, actually.”

  “I got in touch with Madison and told her I wanted to coordinate a pirate convention reunion at Blue Hawaii for next year.” I grimaced. “I do actually want to do that, but I’ll have to contact Shawn or Aaliyah instead. Something tells me that Madison won’t be available to do it.”

  Maya looked up from her phone, which she had just used to write a text. “Henry’s walking in. He’ll be listening for a confession.”

  I waved to Madison, who casually strolled over to us. She was free of all pirate gear. Seeing her stripped of her costume made her more ominous and threatening.

  Madison Walker appeared to be a normal person. She wasn’t pretending to be a plundering and pillaging pirate. There was no indication that she would be capable of taking a man’s life. Her nose was still peeling from a sunburn and she had multiple tan lines across her shoulders. Her bright eyes were full of promise. She was dedicated and resourceful.

  And, yet, I was convinced that she had murdered Bentley Barber.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Madison Walker was looking at me with a curious gaze. She didn’t suspect what I knew—or she was simply good at playing innocent.

  She covered a cough and I suddenly realized something.

  Bentley Barber got Madison sick.

  Madison’s red nose hadn’t tipped me off to being sick. It had been burned since the first time I met her. But her coughing? Her stuffed nose?

  Those she had at the treasure hunt, which made sense. Her cold wouldn’t have developed until around then, if Bentley had passed on his germs to her. Plus, Madison would have had to be in close proximity to Bentley to get them.

  I’d say that strangling a guy to death was close enough to catch an illness from him.

  She could have caught the cold from anyone, of course. But this was too big a coincidence to think otherwise. Besides, there was all the other evidence that pointed to her lack of innocence.

  I jumped right into it. “I lied. I’m not here to discuss planning another pirate convention. I’m here to discuss how you killed Bentley Barber.”

  Madison froze. Her eyes widened as her hands started to shake—but only for a split second. She quickly pulled herself together. “What are you talking about?”

  “It was your noose around Bentley’s neck,” I said.

  Madison balked at the accusation. “You can’t prove that. Aaliyah made a bunch of nooses for everyone to wear. She thought they would be a good addition for our costumes.”

  “She’s missing your noose. Aaliyah wanted to put medallions on the nooses to commemorate the pirate convention, but you haven’t returned yours yet.” I frowned. “Bentley was found with a noose matching that description. You lost your noose, remember?”

  “That doesn’t make me a killer,” Madison protested.

  “Aaliyah kept track of how many he made and we found all of them—except for yours,” I said. “Yours was tied around Bentley’s neck. What do you have to say about that?”

  “Some sick person stole my noose and is trying to frame me!” Madison rubbed her hair in anguish. “I can’t believe this. I thought we were friends. Why are you trying to accuse me of murder?”

  “Because you killed a man,” I said, my eyes widening. “You drugged his drink and confronted him on the sand. Bentley fell over, dizzy from the concoction he unknowingly swallowed, and you tried to get him to agree to forgive your debt.

  “He didn’t go for it and you two fought. You were so angry that you weren’t getting what you wanted that you choked him with fishing wire. Maybe you meant to scare him, maybe you didn’t mean to go that far, but at some point his face turned blue and his eyes went glassy. You killed Bentley.

  “You also tried to sabotage anyone who got too close to figuring out the truth. You couldn’t have Sophia winning the costume contest. You needed to keep her in debt. If Donna was on her trail, then Sophia wouldn’t have time to search for the person who killed her brother.”

  “That was a malfunction,” Madison insisted. “I’d hardly call music not working sabotage.”

  “Your phone proves otherwise,” I said. “You didn’t want me to win either contest. You needed me preoccupied with paying back my debt instead of finding out who killed Bentley. You tried to hurt Sophia’s chances at winning the costume contest, but she won anyway.

  “When Sophia didn’t accuse you of killing Bentley, you turned your attention to other people who might be on to you. That led you to realizing that I was the one crossing suspects off my list, not Sophia. So, you got better at sabotage and made sure that I’d lose the treasure hunt. You thought for sure that I wouldn’t be able to continue the investigation—not when I had people coming after me for the money I owed.”

  Madison grew quiet as the evidence piled against her.

  “Also, you were the one who bought Kai William’s boat!” I exclaimed. “You would have used it to get off the radar. You only stayed in Hawaii for the pirate convention because you organized it. Leaving would have looked suspicious, but staying for it and then disappearing? No one would have thought twice.”

  I looked at Madison’s horrified face. “I know it was your noose. I know you killed Bentley.”

  Madison sniffed, but I think it was because of her stuffy nose, not from tears of guilt. She coughed a second later, proving my thought to be correct. She had the decency to cover her cough with her elbow.

  Madison may have killed Bentley, but she had much better manners than he did.

  She sniffed again and this time, it might have been from guilt.

  “Madison?” I asked gently. “How did you get involved with Bentley Barber in the first place?”

  “I needed the money,” said Madison, averting her gaze. “My family couldn’t afford to send me to college. My parents are fishermen. I even lived on a boat with them for a couple years when I was a kid. We sailed across the world and saw many cool things, but that kind of lifestyle isn’t going to make you financially stable.

  “I borrowed enough to make college work, along with student loans and working as much as I could.” Madison looked at me with pleading eyes. “I loved my childhood. Growing up on the sea was the best adventure I could ask for. But I saw how hard my parents worked just to survive. I wanted more than that. I wanted stability.”

  Maya folded her arms. “You wanted stability bad enough to kill for?”

  “You don’t understand! It wasn’t like that. I didn’t set out to kill him. I just wanted to scare him.” Madison covered her face with her hands. “Things got out of hand way too fast. I didn’t drug Bentley, but I did confront him.

  “I brought the knife in case he tried something. Bentley Barber’s got a bad reputation and I had to be prepared for anything,” said Madison. “When I told him that I couldn’t make the payment yet, he got angry. He started shouting and waving his arms. I felt threatened. His face was br
ight red with rage! What was I supposed to do?”

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  Madison took a deep breath. “I pulled out the knife to show him I wouldn’t be taken advantage of. That set him off. He tried to grab it out of my hand. We struggled for a little bit before he knocked it out of my grip and the knife went flying. I don’t know where it went. I couldn’t find it later.”

  “The police found it,” said Maya.

  “Oh. It was dark and hard to see that night,” said Madison. “I should have noticed where it went, but Bentley came flying at me. He was upset because he owed someone else money and with me not being able to pay, he would be in a tight spot.

  “He grabbed me and I couldn’t get him off of me. I yanked some fishing wire I had in my pocket and wrapped it around his neck to stop him.”

  Madison’s bloodshot eyes were doused with tears. “I went too far. I only wanted him off of me—but I ended up killing him instead.

  “I went by Blue Hawaii after… after it all happened. My hands had blood on them, but I could hardly ask to use your sink to wash it off, so I kept pumping the hand-sanitizer when no one was looking. I was trying to give myself an alibi. If people saw me at the bar, then they wouldn’t think I had killed a man minutes prior.”

  “That was why my supply was so low! I was wondering where it had gone.” Seeing that no one else cared about that mystery, I pressed on. “I saw you there when Bentley was still alive. When did you come back?”

  “Kimo said you were on a break. I didn’t see you when I was there,” said Madison.

  I had taken a short break that night, so her explanation checked out.

  Madison got a hard glint in her eyes. “It was a mistake. I didn’t mean to do it. But I don’t regret it. Bentley should pay for the terrible things he did! He ruined people’s lives. I took care of him. I made the world a safer place because he’s no longer in it.”

  “And that’s my cue,” said Detective Chang as he began to read Madison her rights.

  There was a combination of defeat and defiance in Madison’s steely gaze. Madison may not have set out to kill Bentley Barber, but she clearly didn’t feel too bad about it.

  I glanced at Maya, relieved. She looked back at me with a similar expression. “We did it,” I said lightly.

  “You did it,” she said. “I just helped.”

  “Either way,” I said. “Now we check ‘solve a murder’ off our bucket lists.”

  Maya gave me an odd look. “Somehow I don’t think this will be the last mystery we’ll solve.”

  “Unless crime suddenly stops being a thing in the future,” I offered.

  “Yeah. Right. That’ll be the day.” Maya grinned. “Come on. Let’s go celebrate.”

  “I’ve got something to do first,” I said as Natasha Silva walked into the room. Before she could see Evan, I pulled her to the side, where he was out of Natasha’s vision.

  “I wanted to ask you about Evan accepting a job offer on the mainland,” I said. “I can’t tell if you were okay with that or not.”

  Natasha grimaced. “I don’t want to talk about Evan anymore. We all made decisions that were the best for us at the time.”

  “But, you’re not happy with those choices?” I asked gently.

  Natasha turned on her heels. “I don’t have to answer that.”

  She took several strong strides before turning around. She looked at me with a hopeless expression. “I just don’t see the point of dwelling on what won’t be happening. Not everyone gets a happy ending. Abigail and I are a family and I wouldn’t give that up for the world. Maybe my future’s not what I once envisioned, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good one.”

  “But not everyone gets a happy ending?” I asked.

  “That’s not what I mean. I’m happy with my life. I just… Look, I freaked out, okay? I didn’t handle Evan’s move in the best way.” Natasha sighed. “Here was a good man who genuinely cared about me and my daughter and that scared me. I didn’t know how to take it. So, I told him to leave.

  “It’s the biggest mistake of my life.” Natasha shook her head. “But it’s not like I can tell him to come back. He’s making something of himself now. He got his second chance. I’m doing all right by me and Abigail here. Everything’s working out.”

  I gave Natasha a sad smile. “But you miss him.”

  “Yeah. More than you can know. When I saw him in the lobby, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I thought to myself, this could be my second chance.” She shrugged. “I chickened out and then Bentley wound up dead. Everything’s a mess.

  “I was trying to protect him. Sophia’s coming after me for what I owed Bentley and I didn’t want to implicate Evan. I was going to figure it out before talking to him,” said Natasha. “Evan’s worked so hard to get to where he’s at. I couldn’t mess that up for him. I don’t know why I’m bothering. I don’t owe Sophia anything. She’s making it all up.”

  I nodded. “Bentley probably told her that you still owed him, like how he did with Evan.”

  Natasha blinked. “What’s that with Evan?”

  “Sophia’s been collecting from Bentley’s clients,” I said. “She doesn’t have any proof that you didn’t already pay her, so she’s working under the assumption that you didn’t pay.”

  Covering her eyes with her hands, Natasha said, “He was in the same predicament as me. I can’t believe it.”

  “He wanted to tell you that, but didn’t want to interrupt you at work,” I said gently.

  Natasha looked at me, her warm eyes full of emotion. “Of course he didn’t. That considerate man… Excuse me, I have to go make a call.” She wrapped me in a hug. “Thanks, Alana.”

  “Hold on,” I said. “What if I told you that he’s sitting right over there?”

  Natasha followed my outstretched hand with wide eyes. “What is he doing there?”

  “Waiting for you,” I said with a smile.

  Natasha blinked rapidly, her hands over her mouth.

  I joined Maya, who had been waiting across the room. She and I walked out of Sandy Turtle, leaving a murderer being arrested and a love connection being reformed in our wake.

  I peeked over my shoulder right before stepping out. Natasha had cautiously gone up to Evan, who had immediately leapt out of his chair. The chair fell over in Evan’s nervous excitement, but neither of them cared.

  It was clear that they had found what they were looking for.

  Nothing was going to come between them again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  What was the most appropriate first stop after catching a killer?

  Heading to the local bar, of course.

  Blue Hawaii hailed Maya and I as local heroes. We arrived to much applause and unending questions about our crime-solving prowess.

  Okay, not really. Word didn’t travel that fast.

  Kimo gave me a high-five, though. “Is Micah coming back now that we know he’s innocent? I’ve got so many more questions to ask him about his time playing baseball.”

  “I’m sure he will,” I said, laughing.

  I turned on the stringed lights that I had left up in the bar as the daylight faded. The sun was slowly setting, casting a rosy hue over the beach. Faint twinkling lights were beginning to show in the sky. The distant ocean waves steadily crashed onto the sand, with no hints of murder or menace lurking in its depths.

  Then a crisp breeze rushed by and a shiver ran down my spine as I realized someone was watching me. I raised my head and gave a rueful grin when I saw who it was.

  Sophia Barber was standing a few feet away from me with her hands on her hips and a smirk growing on her lips. Even when knowing that Sophia was innocent, she still knew how to make a dramatic entrance. She took her time coming over to talk to me, making sure that all eyes were on her.

  Like they weren’t already. Kiwi the parrot was on her shoulder, making her a spectacle among the non-pirate bar patrons.

  “You found out Evan’s
dirt, I see,” said Sophia.

  I grinned. “That he’s in love with Natasha? That’s hardly the scandalous secret you made it seem like it was.”

  Sophia wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t say it was scandalous. Just unexpected. I didn’t see that love story unfolding until it had already happened. Usually I’m the first to see those things.” She gave me a sideways glance. “Like with you and Landon? Got any juicy secrets you’d like to share with me?”

  “I make it a habit to not share secrets with you,” I said.

  “Right.” Sophia winked. “That’s what they all say.”

  “I mean it,” I said.

  “They all do,” said Sophia serenely.

  Her hair was newly dyed to perfection and styled accordingly. There was no birdseed in her hair or on her shoulder. The dark circles under her eyes were harder to conceal, but I didn’t think that she needed to hide them. Sophia had just lost her brother and that couldn’t be an easy thing to deal with, no matter what their personal relationship had been like.

  “Evan!” Sophia suddenly called out, seeing him arrive.

  Evan held out his arm. Kiwi immediately flew to him, squawking, “Evan Clay. Evan Clay.”

  “Oh, sure, you’re nice to him,” Sophia called out. “You spend a bunch of time with me and all I get is screaming. But one second with Evan and suddenly you two are the best of friends.”

  “Evan Clay. Evan Clay,” said the parrot.

  Evan tenderly stroked Kiwi’s feathers. “To be fair, Kiwi and I were already great friends. Thanks for watching him, Sophia. I appreciate it.”

  “The parrot is yours?” I asked, my mouth dropping open.

  “Sophia offered to take care of him when I went to the mainland for a while. I didn’t have concrete plans for my life yet and I didn’t want to uproot Kiwi from his normal environment,” said Evan.

  I turned to Sophia with a wide grin. “That was nice of you.”

  Too bad you got stuck with an annoying bird. Karma’s a—

  My thoughts were interrupted by Sophia’s response. “I thought having a parrot would be easy.” She wrinkled her nose. “I misjudged that situation. And, speaking of which…”