Mele Kalikimaka Murder

by Aimee Gilchrist

  He pointed at me. "By the way, I'm also really honest. This is either my best or worst personality trait, depending on who you ask."

  Alex was clearly completely delighted. "As far as I'm concerned, you're hired."

  I couldn't tell too much from Georgie's body language, so when both men turned to me, I held up a finger. "Hang on for just a minute, will you?"

  I pulled Georgie off to the side and pulled out the hiring log, burying both our faces behind it. "We don't have to do this. Just because he wants to be here doesn't mean we have to allow him to be."

  A shuddering sigh passed through Georgie. "The thing is, he knows I want to be around him. He wouldn't have followed me if he'd believed I was no longer willing to be his friend. He believes I just left because I wanted to be with you. Unless I'm willing to tell him why I really don't want to be with him, there's no smooth way out of this."

  "So let it not be smooth. Do you want him or not?"

  I hated the pure pain in her eyes. "I always want him. That's the problem."

  Time for proper clarification. "Should I hire him or not?"

  She shook her head, but then said, "Yes, go ahead."

  I wasn't completely moved by her conviction, but I didn't know quite what else to do. I lowered the log and pasted on a smile, crossing back toward them. "We have a single position available in the bar, but we only want licensed bartenders. We also have a position in security, one in housekeeping, and two for bellboys."

  "As it happens, I'm a licensed bartender. But I think I'm most interested in security."

  I nodded. "Our real head of security is not around right now. He may want to interview you when he gets back in January, and he may find you're a better fit in a different position, but for right now, let me page Silas."

  I stepped slightly away and got on the radio, paging Silas to come to the lobby. I let them work it out and went back to work, debating Marty's appearance the entire time. I wanted to be that person. The one who wasn't afraid to take what I wanted. It was the thing I'd always envied the most about Georgie, though the time had come I could see there was one risk she wouldn't take. I'd spent my entire life avoiding risk, while people like Georgie and Marty took risks like vitamins, swallowing life whole.

  After everyone was gone into town for the big candle-lighting ceremony, the employees in charge of cleaning up had begun their work, and I couldn't avoid seeing other employees again. I went to the Lava Pot and found Alex, Marty, and Georgie already there. I collapsed in a chair and put my head on the bar. Alex reached out a hand and rubbed my back, and I let him because I was a horrible person.

  Marty and Georgie were in the midst of a conversation. Alex was silent and slouched in his seat. Georgie had come alive. The old sister I remembered was back, as though some of Marty's incredibly electric energy was the thing that animated her. Her depression must have been acute, though it had taken me days to notice it.

  "Oh yeah. And we got that snakehead coffee cup from the dude with the hammer nose at that market in Nepal, and then we'd have some stupid-ass bet every weekend to see who got to keep the cup in their cabin for the week," Georgie recalled, joining Marty in hysterical laughter that told me they'd already had plenty to drink, they were simply high on being back together, or the bets they'd undertaken really were painfully stupid, and I didn't want to even know what they were.

  I chanced a peek at Alex, who shrugged, looking as befuddled as I was. Either by their shared humor, by what a snakehead coffee cup was, or by what a hammer nose was. It really could have been any or all of the above.

  Missing my phone, I snatched Georgie's off the counter and scrolled through, prepared to find Candy Crush or something like it, desperate for a moment of escape from reality. But Georgie had the camera open. She'd been taking selfies again. I scrolled through Georgie's photograph history, taking in hundreds of pictures of the planet she'd been exploring for the last two years.

  Almost every one of them had Martin Gentry in them. From silly, playful selfies with the two of them to pictures that he clearly didn't know were being taken, on high mountains and in front of Chinese temples. Grinning friends, drinking foreign beers, eating food I'd never be brave enough to eat, climbing mountains, jumping from planes, and conquering the world. There was something so poignant about this travelogue captured through images.

  I'd never been so close to anyone, not even Georgie, my own twin. The closeness and chemistry between them couldn't have been more obvious, even on film. They had these smiles for each other that I'd only ever seen on people deeply in love. People who were so happy to be together that they just couldn't contain it. Except there was nothing in his behavior that suggested he was in love with her. She was right. He was in it for the friendship, and there was no question it was the closest friendship I'd ever seen. No wonder she'd felt the need to flee. My heart hurt for her. It must have been agony to be with or without him. I couldn't imagine which was worse.

  I closed her phone and laid it down, games forgotten. I sighed, exhaustion moving through my frame until I was considering lying on the floor and going to sleep right there.

  "You should go to bed." The tender words were spoken by Alex, and my heart welled, and I hated myself again. For being so weak that I wanted to be with Alex. For being a coward and not taking that chance. For so many things.

  I forced a smile. "What, and miss the potential of hearing what they did to keep possession of the mug? Never."

  He laughed, but I stilled.

  He cocked his head. "What's the matter?"

  "On the pier." Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe I was way off.

  "What?"

  "How do we find property ownership records?"

  He blinked, clearly thrown by my apparent sudden change of topics, but it wasn't at all. "I don't know. Why?"

  "On the pier, when Squid and Big Steve were talking to us."

  He nodded. Marty and Georgie stopped talking and turned toward me. I ignored them. "When you guys were talking about your shoes, they were telling you about the guy who sells Chinese shoes out of his trunk, and they were saying they barely knew each other."

  "Yes, I remember."

  "But then one of them said to the other that they got a grill from the same guy years ago. I was just listening to Marty and Georgie talk to each other, and it was reminding me of them. People who hardly know each other don't talk like that. People with shared history do. And they don't buy a single grill without arguing about who gets it."

  "They live in the same house," Alex finished.

  "How do we find out where they live, and what does it even mean?"

  Alex shook his head. "I don't know what it means, but I know they're lying for a reason. You don't lie about not really knowing someone and secretly live with them for no reason."

  He headed behind the bar and dug behind the counter. The bartender, a young man with bleached hair named Raph, just watched Alex in silence, not even bothering to ask why Alex was behind the counter. He just went down the bar to serve another exhausted resort employee. Alex leapt over the counter and started scouring the small Aloha Lagoon phone book.

  "Who are you looking for though? We don't know either of their real names."

  Alex shook his head. "I'm not calling them."

  He grabbed the bar line and dialed quickly, greeting whoever answered the phone in what I suspected was Korean. The conversation was quick, and the only part I understood was "Johnny Castle." He thanked the person in English, then again in Korean before hanging up.

  He glanced at the three of us. "That was a woman named Mama Leoni. My parents like me to visit her because they're heartily afraid I'll suddenly forget how to speak Korean. She's ancient. Probably the oldest person in Aloha Lagoon. She knows everyone. She says that she doesn't know Johnny Castle's real name, but Squid's name is Peter Eldridge. He was raised around here, but he took off years ago. He only showed up about two years ago. At the same time as Johnny Castle, the dead surfing coach, and the same time wh
en Henry told me he first moved to Hawaii. They must have all come together to grow those drugs."

  Peter Eldridge seemed like such a run-of-the-mill name for a guy like Squid. Someone who spent all his time vaguely high, but not so high he couldn't find it in himself to possibly run an opium ring off an abandoned beach. Alex flipped through the book, scanning for an address for Peter Eldridge.

  I grabbed his hand. "Wait. The envelope Mallory had taped under her bed. Where is it?"

  Georgie pulled a plastic baggie from her purse that contained everything of evidentiary value that we'd found at Mallory's place. Sadly, it contained only the torn piece of newspaper from the envelope and Seth's coded card. I flipped it so I could read the paper clipping again. "Look, this house she circled. It's in the lower-rent part of town, and you can see the house next door in the corner of the ad. I thought maybe she was looking for a new place to live when I left, but what if she wasn't? Look in the window of the house next door."

  Alex took the ad and stared. Georgie snorted. "Seriously? The curtains are decorated with pot leaves. If that isn't Squid's decorating taste, I can't guess what is. They came here together and made friends, pretended not to know each other. Maybe this isn't Squid's house, but I sure bet it is. The only way to avoid giving away potential information about what they were up to was to blend in with the locals."

  Alex pointed at Georgie. "Call the police and have Detective Ray meet us at the Na Kukui O Ka Mana`Olana. I have no doubt they'll be there. If they're playing locals, they'll be missed if they don't go to the ceremony, and that would be noticed."

  Georgie shook her head. "What's a Na Kuku whatever?"

  "Candle-lighting ceremony. It's in the town square." He grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let's get downtown. If we don't find him there, we try the home address."

  I scrambled after him, blood finally pumping back to my numb brain and limbs, returning me to life after the day we'd had. We took his car, because it was parked closest, and headed for downtown, exceeding the speed limit. If we got pulled over, that would be still better. Then we'd have a police escort. But like Alex, I was sure everyone was at the candle-lighting ceremony. No one would be patrolling tonight.

  Normally, as I understood it, the ceremony would take place in a church. There was no church in AL that could accommodate a group this big. Every single person in town would come to light a candle for peace. It was simply expected. And they would do it on the lawn of city hall where long rows of wooden blocks had been set up to receive the candles.

  We couldn't get in close. It almost would have been faster to just run over from the resort. We parked at the rear of an endless line of cars, and Alex ran, pulling me clumsily behind him. "What do we do if we find him?" I asked as we approached the square, yelling to be heard over the din of the crowd and the singing of a children's choir.

  I stopped dead in my tracks when we got close enough to see the ceremony. The night was lit by thousands of candles. The vision was breathtaking. The candles rested in the wood holders, making long rows of flame-lit paths. The grass was filled with candles, more in hands.

  "Wow."

  Alex hesitated too, both of us overcome by such an unexpected sight when our minds had solely been on Squid. Then he shook his head. "Come on. Ray must be here."

  He grabbed my hand, and we plunged into the crowd, finding two men in uniforms, but one was officer Apodoca and the other was an unfamiliar officer, possibly from a nearby town, who was either here for the ceremony or a resident I simply didn't know. Ray was nowhere to be found. We could only hope that Georgie had gotten through. "What do we do now?" I asked, trying to fight our way out of the crowd.

  "I don't know. I guess we go back to the resort, and we wait for Ray. We don't want to go to Squid's house without calling Ray first. At least someone would know where we were. It seems crazy to show up without anyone knowing we'd gone."

  My breath caught brutally in my lungs when a face appeared in front of me. Still reeking of pot, for once Squid didn't appear to be high, and I frankly wasn't sure he'd ever actually been. "Why would you want to go to my house?" he requested intently. "See, I've just been following you around, and I couldn't help but to hear my name. You know how that is when someone says your name, even in a crowd."

  I restrained a scream, swallowing the noise brutally. Alex grabbed my arm stepping in front of me partially, blocking Squid from access to me. "Merry Christmas, Squid. Let's talk."

  I felt something cold and hard jam into my back. "Yes, let's."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  It took me a moment to realize the object was a gun and the speaker was Big Steve. I glanced at Alex, who flashed me a warning look. I knew what he was saying. I was to do nothing and let him handle it. I might. Or I might run for it, if I thought I had a clear shot. Unfortunately, I wasn't the one with a clear shot. Big Steve was.

  We started walking slowly and casually towards the edges of the crowd. I scanned the throng but still didn't see Detective Ray. At this point I would have taken any officer. Or even that off-duty guy. But they were nowhere to be found.

  "You guys are the biggest pains in my ass ever," Big Steve said, almost conversationally. Belatedly, I realized that Squid was deferring to Big Steve, which befuddled me. Big Steve clearly couldn't be the man in charge of an operation like this, even if I was kind and free with the appellation of man. He was, like, twelve years old!

  "I had to kill my best bagman. And three other people I really didn't want to kill. Now I have to move my operation somewhere else, and I'm going to kill you two as well. And maybe your hot sister," Big Steve complained, waving the gun in my direction. "You're really pissing me off. I shouldn't have to do this."

  His best bagman? Really? Big Steve? Big Steve was in charge of the opium ring? I just seriously couldn't wrap my brain around it. I could imagine anyone before I could imagine Big Steve.

  "Stop."

  The word came from in front of us, and it took a minute before I could tell who the speaker was. I was shocked, though I really shouldn't have been, to see Darcy emerge from the tree line and block our path. "This has gone on long enough, Big Steve. I get that you killed Mallory as a message to me. Because she followed me to the cove and saw the field, and then she talked to Sugarbaker. If only she'd have kept her mouth shut, like I told her."

  I really didn't want to draw attention my way, but nevertheless, I had to ask. "Mallory didn't even know what you guys were doing until she found out, what, maybe a week before you killed her, did she?" The truth was shocking. She'd had literally nothing to do with that scene. "She followed you because she thought you'd be surfing. She probably heard about the challenge there, and maybe she thought you were ready to take on a bigger challenge and trying to hide the best waves in town from her. Maybe she just thought she missed you, and she was trying to catch up with you."

  Darcy sighed. "She didn't. She knew nothing. Mallory was a sweet girl, but she wasn't that smart. Usually, she believed whatever she was told. I made the mistake of introducing her to Niall when he dropped by the resort one night. I didn't expect them to fall in love. He was Big Steve's bagman, and Mallory was innocent. I told him to stay away from her, but he didn't. She believed he was a businessman though. She would have continued to believe anything if we'd told her. It wasn't until she saw it that she knew."

  It must have been about that time that Seth Peterson had approached Mallory, done something to make her understand that he was there for the people she'd just discovered were growing opium just outside of town. Maybe he'd asked her to get him information. Maybe he'd simply advised her to call him if she needed help. Either way, he hadn't come through for her.

  Darcy swerved her gun to our right when she likely saw Big Steve move out of the corner of her eye. "You stay put. You and I are through. And don't move another step, or I will kill you."

  She raised her arm and gun number two, or maybe even number three, depending on whether or not Squid was armed. Alex and I glanced at each other.
Squid proved he was indeed armed, by pulling out his gun. Behind us, the ceremony was still going strong.

  "Darcy, you stupid bitch. You can't overthrow me, and you know it. One gun isn't enough."

  "How about two?" The question came from the bushes before I saw Eurotrash step out, looking one hundred percent deadly with his European assault rifle. "You killed my brother. Did you think I'd just be okay with that?"

  Big Steve shifted, and I guessed he was uncomfortable. Or his mother hadn't told him to use the potty before leaving the house. But I was guessing from the big gun that he was afraid he'd lost his advantage. "The idiot tried to kill me when he found out I killed Mal when he was out of town. I couldn't let that go."

  "You killed my brother. I can't just let that go," Henry countered.

  I couldn't deal. They could shoot each other to pieces, but not here. Not at a peace candle-lighting ceremony. "There are innocent people behind you. Hundreds of them. Please, let's just move away from the crowd."

  It was stupid, practically signing our death sentence to leave this location where there was safety in numbers, and we might run into Detective Ray at some point, and I couldn't imagine letting them have a drug turf war, however small, right here where innocent people could die.

  Alex shot me a look, and I could see it was a combination of exasperation and admiration. I often felt that way about him. I could only hope that something happened and we were able to escape this. I refused to consider anything else.

  Darcy looked at us. "I'm sorry Ms. Conner and Mr. Cho. You guys have been really nice to me. It's a shame it had to come to this. And I'm really sorry about Mallory." She really did look sorry. "I trusted Big Steve, and I loved him."

  I glanced at Big Steve again, barely restraining a shudder. Good Lord. The thought was nauseating.

  Darcy continued. "I was wrong. And I'm sorry. He shoved Mallory up in the waterfall because he knew the entire staff would be present for the opening-night ceremonies, and he wanted me to know what happens when you talk, just in case I was getting ideas. Well, here's what happens, you douchebag." She touched her gun to the side of his head. "You die."