My brain couldn’t fully comprehend what I had just read. If Pete Sinclair was married this morning, why was he here at the hotel with the detective instead of honeymooning? Where was his wife? Pete Sinclair obviously wasn’t the groom thrown over the cliff, so who was? And why would he come to Hawaii for a wedding and bring rare coins with him?
I quickly jotted down the address of the house on the cliff and Pete Sinclair’s address in Chicago. I tore the paper from the pad and stuffed it into my oversized bag, which also doubled as my purse. I put the papers back the way I found them and turned the laptop away from me. I forced my brain to quit analyzing the strange situation and write my statement.
I had only written three sentences when Detective Hale came back into the room. I kept my head down and pretended to be concentrating.
I actually did a good job of explaining what we were doing on the property. I left out the part about the pet crematorium, and the murder, but I was thorough with everything else, right down to Mama’s prayer.
When I finished, I wrestled with whether or not I should tell the detective what I had seen, but I honestly didn’t think he would believe me. He might even find more reasons to suspect me of a crime than he already did. Sergeant Rorski’s advice to keep my mouth shut seemed wise right now.
I was signing my statement when Glenn walked into the room with a jumble of papers in his hand. He handed them to Detective Hale and said, “This is everyone including the two kids.”
I stood from the desk and said to Glenn, “I’m done. Let’s go.”
The detective took the papers from Glenn and held them out to me. “Transfer this information to your statement.”
I walked away from him. “Get someone else to do it. I’m on my honeymoon.”
He didn’t try to stop us as we left the room.
When we were back in the lobby, Glenn asked, “Are you all right?”
I nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Come on, Jo. I know you. Something’s up. What happened at that Sinclair guy’s house?”
I wanted to tell him. I didn’t want to keep secrets from him, and I wanted to know what he thought I should do.
“Let’s go out to the pool bar - the one with the tables under the thatched roof. I want one of those blue drinks.” Under my breath, I muttered, “Or maybe two or three.”
He grasped my hand and smiled. “It can’t be that bad, but I’m up for a cold beer.”
When we were settled into chairs with our drinks in front of us, I watched people in the pool. I needed a few minutes and some of the alcohol before telling him what I had seen. He didn’t press and left me alone with my thoughts.
A chubby boy, who looked to be about eight years old, performed a perfect cannonball from the side of the pool. Several women complained about the spray. His mother apologized loudly before lecturing her son on his behavior. I couldn’t help smiling. Keith had put Pepper in the same situation more than once since we arrived.
Other than Lucille’s inopportune strip club adventure, our honeymoon had been wonderful. While Mama and her friends went deep sea fishing, whale watching, and hiking, Glenn and I had spent most of our time at the hotel pool or on the beach. We had taken a bus tour with everyone on Sunday, but one day of sightseeing was enough for me. I was content to relax with Glenn and dash back to our room whenever the urge to hurrah hit us.
Hank and Nancy were treating the vacation as their own personal honeymoon before their wedding. Other than breakfast every day, we hadn’t seen much of them - not even in the evenings when we usually went out to dinner as a group.
Pepper had run her family ragged. They were going to need a vacation to recover from their vacation when they returned home. If it was educational, Pepper was all over it. She, Buck, and the kids had seen more of the islands and taken more tours than any of us – and all on Lucille’s dime.
The chubby boy cannonballed on the other side of the pool. An attendant spoke to the boy’s mother, and the family left the area a few minutes later with complimentary tickets to a water park. I couldn’t help smiling and felt the stress of the meeting with the detective finally leave my body.
It was beautiful here by the pool. The ocean and beach were in clear view, and palm trees always made me feel as if I were in a tropical setting. It was especially delicious that we were actually in a tropical setting.
I finished my drink and ordered another. Glenn still had half his beer left.
When my second Blue Hawaiian arrived, I set the flower aside, ate the cherry, and took a bite of the pineapple slice. I stirred the drink with my straw and looked over at Glenn. “First, you have to promise not to dismiss my words. You know, you do that sometimes.”
“I do not,” he said, pretending to be hurt.
“Glenn, you do. When you think I’m exaggerating, you let my words go in one ear and out the other. You don’t take me seriously.”
“Well, you have to admit, you do exaggerate.”
“Maybe a little, but mostly, I just get excited. I’m not excited now, and I’m not exaggerating.”
“I’ll take you seriously. I promise. Tell me what happened.”
“Remember when Roger honked the horn the first time? It was one short honk. I turned from the ocean to leave and saw a bride come out of the house. She was fully dressed with her veil pulled over her face.”
Glenn furrowed his brow. “A bride? Are you sure?”
“You’re doing it again.” I didn’t try to hide the exasperation in my voice. “Of course I’m sure. How could I mistake a bridal gown and veil?”
He placed his hand over mine and leaned over to kiss me. “I’m sorry. Go on.”
“She stepped out onto the patio, turned back to the doorway, and leaned down to grab something. The next thing I know, she’s dragging the groom-” I stopped and said, “Yes, I’m positive he was the groom, because he was wearing a tuxedo. She grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him into the yard. I watched her from behind a palm tree.”
“What’d she do that for?”
“How am I supposed to know? Maybe they had their first fight. She dragged him down the yard to the cliff. He was either dead or passed out, because he didn’t put up a fight. I moved closer to see what she was doing, and that’s when I saw her shove him over the cliff.”
I could tell from the look on his face he wanted to tell me I had to be wrong, but he kept his mouth shut.
“I know what I saw, Glenn,” I said with irritation.
He grasped my hand again and said, “I know. You’re a good private investigator, and I know your observation skills are better than most. We’re good. Go on.”
Now he was just placating me. My powers of observation were terrible on a good day. I missed details and lost track of people I was tailing more often than I cared to admit. However, I was better than when I first started, and I expected to get even better with time.
“That’s when Roger laid on the horn, and the bride looked up. Because of the veil, I couldn’t see her face, but I know she saw me. I took off running, and she took a shot at me. I felt the bullet whiz by my head. If Mama wouldn’t have had the radio blaring in the van, you would have heard the gunshot.” I shuddered and took a long drink of the strong blue concoction.
He was speechless for a few moments before asking, “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? Why didn’t you tell the detective?”
“I said in the van someone shot at me, but no one believed me, and because we’re leaving tonight, I thought it would be best if I kept what I saw to myself. I figured the body would eventually show up somewhere.” I pulled my phone from my bag and brought up the text from Officer Winnie. “Besides, I got some advice from an expert.” I handed my phone to him.
Glenn appeared confused. “Why is Bill texting you? Did you text him?”
I half smiled. “I called Sergeant Rorski to ask him what he thought I should do. He hung up on me a couple of times, and he did tell me to call the police, or have you call the
m, but this message from Bill was the last I heard from the sergeant, so I took his advice and kept my mouth shut. With Detective Hale already suspicious of me, I didn’t think I should tell him a story that made me sound like I wasn’t in my right mind.”
He handed my phone back to me. “Do you have a theory?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have a clue what happened at that house.”
I filled him in on the information about Pete Sinclair I had pulled from the internet while I was alone in the hotel security office.
“He certainly didn’t seem happy for a man who just got married,” Glenn said.
“Someone broke into his house and stole his coins. He had good reason to be cranky.”
Glenn took both my hands in his and looked into my eyes. “No he didn’t. The morning we were married, someone could have stolen everything I owned, and I wouldn’t have cared. It was the happiest day of my life.”
Sometimes he took my breath away with the sweet things he said. I leaned in to kiss him before pulling my hands away and taking another long draw on my straw. A loud slurping-sucking sound signaled the last of my drink.
Glenn smiled. “Another?”
“Sure,” I said.
He didn’t wait for our waiter. I appreciated the view from behind as he walked away from me toward the bar. I suppose that’s why I was surprised when a glimmer of a thought crept into my mind and distracted me from Glenn’s rear view. It was fleeting at first but quickly took shape.
When he came back with my drink, I grabbed the glass from him and handed it off to an exceptionally loud woman at the table next to ours. She had already had three of the blue drinks, and I suspected she wouldn’t mind a fourth.
With the woman squealing in delight behind us, we left the pool area. I propelled Glenn back to the lobby.
“Let’s pay a visit to Pete Sinclair,” I said. “It’s his word against mine that I stole his coins, and I think he should know what I saw on his property.”
He shook his head. “You’re drunk. Two of those Blue Hawaiians is like having six shots of alcohol. You’re not thinking straight, and we’re not going to Pete Sinclair’s house.”
“I’m not drunk. A little tipsy maybe, but I feel fine, and I’m going with or without you, so you may as well come along.”
I suspected the booze was giving me more courage than I might otherwise have, but I wanted to talk to Pete without the detective present, and I wanted Glenn with me for moral support.
“He won’t believe you,” Glenn said.
“Probably not, but what if he does? My news might add to something he already knows. I don’t want to talk to Detective Hale and give him any reason to detain us, but maybe we can help Pete while we’re still here. You’re a police officer, and I’m a private investigator. Surely, we can come up with something.”
I headed for the main doors. Behind me, I heard Glenn say under his breath, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Chapter Four
Before I made it out of the lobby, Mama burst through the front doors. She looked like something the cat dragged in. Her hair was tangled and sticking out in all directions. I noticed sand on her chest, and the dark patches on her legs looked like dried mud.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
She frowned and looked insulted. “Nothing.”
“I thought you were going snorkeling.”
“That’s later. Right now, I need to take a shower. I’m going upstairs to bribe a maid to let me in a room.”
Glenn stood beside me with a huge smile on his face. He was always highly amused by Mama. I wasn’t. It was going to be a miracle if she wasn’t in jail before the day was out. There was no way I was going to ask her where she and the rest of her gang had just been and what they were doing.
Instead, I asked, “Do you have the keys to the van?”
I had a Blue Hawaiian buzz and couldn’t drive, but Glenn hadn’t even finished one beer. I’d give the keys to him.
She shook her head. “Unh-unh. Pepper took them. Buck’s driving to another island to see a volcano.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can’t drive to the other islands, and I thought they were going to the aquarium.”
“Nope. Volcano. Keith has Lucille’s false teeth and wants to use them as an offering so the pineapple crop will be good for the next seven years.”
Glenn laughed loudly at her news.
My jaw dropped. “Didn’t you have her cremated with her teeth in?”
“I didn’t know she wasn’t wearing them at the stripper joint. I was just as surprised as the next guy when we found them in her room.” She furrowed her brow. “Where are you two going? Why did you want the van?”
Before Glenn could tell her about Pete Sinclair, I jumped in with, “We want to do a little more sightseeing before we leave.”
She opened her purse and pulled out a wad of cash. “Hank and Nancy are out front. Take them with you. They haven’t seen anything other than the inside of their hotel room since we got here. They need to give the nookie a rest.” She peeled off five one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them to me. “Take one of them helicopter rides. You can see all of Hawaii in one trip.”
If my mouth fell open any farther, the manager would want to book the open space as a room. “Mama! Where did you get all that money?”
My ignorance is bliss plan vanished.
“I found it this morning in a zippered compartment in Lucille’s purse.”
Glenn cocked his head and frowned slightly. “Was there enough cash to pay the hotel bill?”
“Not even close,” she said. “She booked nine rooms for ten days. The bill’s probably over ten thousand dollars, and I only found three thousand.”
I couldn’t believe she was keeping the money. “You should give the money to the hotel to offset what we already owe.”
She pooh-poohed the idea. “They’ll get their money from her estate – eventually. We need this for the rest of today and traveling expenses on our way home. Now, go on. Take a helicopter ride.”
She didn’t stick around to give us a chance to argue. She was running for an open elevator before I could open my mouth again.
I looked at the bills in my hand. “Mama said Lucille doesn’t have any family. There aren’t any children or close relatives to lay claim to her estate. I sure hope no one comes out of the woodwork and wants an accounting for all the money we’ve spent this week.”
Glenn slung his arm across my shoulders and took the money from my hand. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Your mother can talk her way out of anything.” He left a loud smooch on my cheek.
We walked outside and found Hank and Nancy sitting on the edge of a planter filled with fragrant orange flowers. Glenn clapped Hank on the back and handed three of the bills to him. “Estelle wants you two to take a helicopter ride and see all of Hawaii in one day.”
Nancy looked at her watch. “We’d love to, but we don’t have time. Our realtor is picking us up in ten minutes.”
Naturally, a big smile spread across Glenn’s face. My mouth fell open yet again.
“Are you guys thinking about moving here?” I asked.
Nancy giggled and snuggled closer to Hank. “Yes. … No. … Maybe,” she said.
Hank laughed and explained. “It started as kind of a lark. When we all took the bus tour on Sunday, Nancy and I spotted a mansion for sale on the way to the pineapple plantation. We thought it would be fun to see what it looked like inside.”
“I love looking at luxury houses,” Nancy said. “One of my favorite things to do is to go on the Parade of Homes every year. I told Hank I thought it would be fun to see inside the house, and things sort of snowballed from there.”
Hank’s smile was impish. “Mama thinks we’ve been hanging out in our hotel room, but we’ve really been seeing some of the most expensive real estate for sale in the state. Some of these houses at night are unbelievable.”
My facial expression turned into a frown-pout. “That
sounds so cool. Why didn’t you say anything to any of us? Glenn and I would have loved to come along.”
Nancy looked embarrassed, but Hank said, “Are you kidding? We couldn’t risk Mama and Roger wanting to come along with us. It’s a tough sell as it is convincing someone we’re serious about buying. And don’t even get me started on Pepper. We wouldn’t have been able to keep her out of medicine chests and dresser drawers. No thanks.”
I had to smile. He was right about all of them, but Pepper was going to kill Hank when she found out what they had been doing and didn’t share their great idea with her. Even one day of house shopping would have made her vacation perfect.
I could see Glenn was once again highly entertained by my family. “Have you changed your mind about just looking?” he asked. “You’re serious about buying now?”
Nancy giggled again. “We are. I’d love to live here. Hank can work anywhere, and I think his photography business would flourish in Hawaii. I can easily get a job in an office, or I could do some teaching.”
“Besides,” Hank said, “if we lived here, everyone in both our families would have somewhere to stay when they came to Hawaii for vacation.”
Nancy’s eyes lit up. “We’ve seen properties with guest houses and pool houses. We could rent them for enough money to more than make our mortgage payment each month.”
Glenn glanced my way with a big smile on his face before saying to Hank, “I think you’re on to something. I was planning to look into timeshares when we got back home, but we’ll rent your pool house the next time we come.”
Hank nodded. “We thought about timeshares, but once we started looking at houses, that idea went out the window. We’d rather own than share.”
“But there are some awesome timeshare properties here,” Nancy said. “The house where we threw Lucille's urn this morning is a timeshare. I looked it up when we were in the van waiting for you.”
“No it’s not,” I said. “The guy who accused me of stealing from him owns the property.”
Hank shook his head. “Nope. Timeshare. We’re positive.”
Glenn looked pensive. “We’re on our way there right now. We thought we’d try to help Pete Sinclair solve his missing coin mystery before we left for home. Jo doesn’t want to have to come back anytime soon.”
Murder Wears a Veil Page 3
