“Oopsie.” Little Estelle patted her hair into place and adjusted the strap on the horn.
“How could you? The poor man is blind,” Big Estelle cried.
Little Estelle shrugged. “I know, so I told him I was thirty. If he dies, at least he’ll go with a smile on his face.”
40
Em Heads Home
By the time all the Maidens took off for the North Shore, Em was exhausted.
She walked out to the parking lot and got into her Honda Element. She found the bright blue pre-owned car listed in the Garden Island and bought it with money from the Porsche she got in her divorce from her ex, which was about all she got out of her nine year marriage. The Honda wasn’t the Mercedes she’d had in Newport Beach, but then again, Kauai wasn’t Newport, and the Element was great for tooling around the island.
She unlocked the car, slipped behind the wheel and was almost out of the parking lot when she spotted Tiko’s van a few rows over. Tiko was beside it with a porter from the hotel who was loading her folding tables. Em turned in the opposite direction and drove to the entrance of the hotel lot. Shaken, she pulled over beneath the spreading branches of a kamani tree.
She hadn’t seen any boxes in Tiko’s van. Everything but the tables had been confiscated by the police.
Em reached for the straw purse on the seat beside her and started fishing around inside for her phone. Obviously Roland hadn’t had enough evidence to charge Tiko with Kawika’s poisoning. If she’d been wrong, Em would never forgive herself.
Her phone wasn’t in her purse, which explained why she hadn’t gotten any calls from Roland. She gripped the wheel and closed her eyes and remembered it fell to the floor backstage. She made a U-turn and headed back to the hotel entrance, told the valet she’d be back in a second and ran in to ask at lost and found.
No one had turned her phone in. When she asked permission to go backstage to look for it, the reception clerk called the manager over. The woman stared at the bruise on Em’s cheek and said, “Sorry. The Rhino Conference is using the ballroom.”
“If I could just go backstage . . .”
“You’re with those Hula Maidens, right?”
“Well, yes, but . . .”
“I’ll have maintenance look for the phone. If they find it, we’ll call you. What’s your number?”
Em thanked her and gave the number to the Goddess then headed back to her car.
Tiko’s van was no longer in the lot, but when Em turned onto the highway headed north she spotted it ahead of her in traffic. When Tiko turned up the hill toward home, Em pulled into the left turn lane. With three cars between them, Em hung back. She had no idea what possessed her to follow Tiko home other than a massive attack of guilt. They passed Opaeka’a Falls and the Wailua River lookouts. The parking lot was full of rental cars and buses, and the car in front of Em turned off. By the time they reached the Wailua Country Store, there was only one car left between her and Tiko. She pulled into the store parking lot and stalled to give Tiko time to get home. She’d be sure to notice Em right behind her.
Five minutes later, Em pulled onto the road again. She drove by Tiko’s without slowing down. The house sat in the middle of the wide open acreage, and she saw Tiko’s van was the only vehicle in the driveway. Still hoping Tiko wasn’t guilty, Em found herself wishing Tiko hadn’t had to return to an empty place.
The Goddess was usually quiet on Sunday evenings, at least it was quiet compared to the usual chaos. Em and Louie had an early dinner together after the bulk of diners left. It was a comfortable relief to talk about something other than the competition or to think about her part in Tiko’s arrest. They sat near the stage where Auntie Irene’s life-sized painting smiled down on them.
“I came up with another drink to celebrate the Maidens placing in the competition,” Louie announced. “The Kookookie Kooler. Have you noticed how Pat slaughters Hawaiian? She says koo-kookie instead of kukui.”
“She slaughters English, too. That’s a cute idea, Uncle. What’s in it?”
“Rum, macadamia nut liquor and a couple other special touches. I’m keeping real kukui nuts out of it, given what happened with Marilyn and the inamona.”
Em noticed he’d been toying with his teriyaki chicken and not really eating.
“Are you feeling all right?”
His expression drooped. “I really miss Marilyn. I know she messed up with Kiki and the others, but if you could just talk to them, convince them she didn’t mean it. I know Marilyn is sorry.”
Em sighed, her own appetite suddenly vanished.
“This is your place, you know. If you want Marilyn here, then Kiki will have to live with it, but there’s something you should know. Something that happened this weekend.”
She didn’t know how much to tell him, and she was sort of surprised he hadn’t heard about Tiko and the smoothie incident yet.
“Tiko was taken in for questioning on suspicion of poisoning one of her old halau members.”
“What?” His brow wrinkled.
“She may have put something in one of the smoothies.”
Louie leaned back in his chair and stared at Em. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish.”
“Did she do it? Is she in jail?”
“She’s been released. I saw her leaving the hotel earlier.”
She still hadn’t connected with Roland, but she filled Louie in on what she knew. “Roland must not have found enough evidence to hold her. They’re probably still going through her smoothie stand ingredients.” Em ran her finger down the condensation on her ice tea glass and didn’t tell him about her involvement. He’d hear about it soon enough.
“I think we should take the smoothies off the menu for a while. Until this all dies down,” she suggested.
“You’re probably right,” Louie was actually smiling again. “In a way this turned out great.”
“Great?” Em felt far from great about it.
“Kiki could be blaming Marilyn.”
Em couldn’t bear to tell him that she wasn’t so sure about Marilyn’s innocence either.
“Marilyn introduced us to Tiko,” she reminded him.
His expression drooped. “You’re against her too.”
“I don’t know what to think about any of this, Uncle Louie. I just want you to be happy and safe. Give it a few more days. Let Kiki and the girls enjoy their success before you invite Marilyn here again. Things will settle down.”
Em almost laughed. Things hadn’t settled down since she moved to Kauai. All she could hope was that before too long the KPD would make some kind of a discovery and arrest.
“Hey, there’s Nat.” Louie waved their neighbor over to the table.
“If you’re closed I’ll come back.” Nat walked in anyway. “I just stopped in to say hi and find out how the Maidens did in the competition.”
“They came in third.” Em indicated the seat across from her. “Have a seat. Are you hungry?”
He shook his head. “Thanks anyway. I already ate. So they came in third.”
“Out of four,” Louie added.
“That’s great,” Nat laughed. “I’m sure they’re happy.”
“More than happy. Kiki called Kimo and said she’s already working on next year’s number,” Em said.
Louie stood up. “Would you like a beer or something?”
“Sure, a beer would be great. Corona if you have one.”
While Louie stepped behind the bar and opened a beer, Nat focused on Em. Louie came back, set the beer down on a cardboard Goddess coaster and immediately started to clear their dishes.
“I’ll get those, Uncle Louie,” Em said. “No hurry.”
“No problem. I’ve got it. You’ve had a hard weekend. I’m going to head back and turn on television for Dave.
He loves Celebrity Apprentice. You kids go ahead and chat.”
She watched him walk away. Hard weekend? He didn’t know half of what she’d been through, thanks to Roland.
“Kids?” Nat laughed.
“To him we are.” She relaxed back in her chair. “We’re planning a celebration party for the Maidens. Louie will be introducing a new drink. Be sure to walk over,” Em told him.
“For sure. Just let me know when.”
He smiled at Em. He was a handsome man, not drop dead ruggedly handsome like Roland, but good looking. Nat seemed solid, capable, steady and intelligent. More importantly, in the months he’d lived next to the Goddess, there hadn’t been a steady stream of women in and out. After her divorce, the last thing she was interested in was a player.
Screen writing was as exciting a profession as being a detective, but it certainly wasn’t dangerous. At least not as far as she knew.
“I’ve got something to run by you.” He leaned his forearms on the table and started playing with a coaster.
“Shoot.” She took a sip of water.
“I’m seriously thinking about pitching a reality show about the Goddess. Would you and your uncle be up for it?”
Em was no stranger to People Magazine. She knew what happened to the lives of people who entered the unreal world of “reality” shows.
“I can’t speak for Louie, but I’m not excited about the idea. Besides, do you really think there’s enough going on around here?” She indicated the shadows of the empty bar.
“You kidding me? Since I’ve been back you’ve had an artist showing body parts made of bread that were so realistic a woman fainted. The Maidens are a whole show in themselves.”
“Unfortunately they’d be thrilled about the idea.”
“And I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but Buzzy is dating a dolphin.”
She kept a perfectly straight face. “And you find that odd?”
He shrugged. “I guess it’s no weirder than finding a body in your luau pit.”
“Oh that?” She waved as if brushing off the thought. “That was months ago.”
“Really, Em. Do you realize the money you’d make if a show was centered on this place?”
“What about our local customers? They might not want to be filmed.”
“Oh, right. You’d have a line out the door and down the highway the minute people heard about it. Everyone wants fifteen minutes of fame. That’s why YouTube and Facebook are so popular. Everyone can become a celebrity overnight.”
“I don’t know.”
“Just think about it, okay?”
She shrugged.
“And run it by your uncle.”
Intuition warned her Louie would love the idea.
“But don’t think too long,” he added. “I have to pitch it when I go back in two weeks.”
“You’re leaving so soon?”
“Now that CDP: Hawaii has been cancelled, I need to get back. LA is where it all happens.” He looked out the window into the dark tropical night. “I love it here, though.”
“Do you love it enough to want a film crew next door twenty-four-seven?”
He thought about it for a minute. “It would sure be a great commute.”
She watched him for a minute and thought about his work.
“Writing for Crime Doesn’t Pay, did you have to do a lot of research?”
“A fair amount. A lot of the crimes were ‘ripped from the headlines’ as they say. We had a team of experts in forensics and crime investigation.” He gazed around the bar. “The only research we’d have to do for a show set here would be on Hawaiian lore, music and tropical cocktails. And tourism, of course,” he added.
“You might be surprised.” She leaned forward. “Do you know anything about ricin poisoning?”
“Ricin? We did a show on ricin poisoning. Espionage stuff. Supposedly a small grain of it can kill.”
“What about the castor plant? What about eating castor beans?”
“Nothing good would happen.” He thought about it a minute and then glanced toward the kitchen door. “Should I be worried about the pulled pork I had for lunch?”
“Not that I know of.” It took her a few minutes to fill him in on what had really happened at the competition. When she finished, he leaned back.
“Wow.”
“I know. Wow.” Em sighed. “I guess I just added fuel to the reality show fire.”
“You bet, but this is no laughing matter. Whoever poisoned that kumu means business. Was ricin only found in one case?”
“Yes. The woman who died first had advanced immune deficiency, and the leader of the group had a very serious heart condition that was deteriorating.”
“So.” He tapped the table with his thumb. “No one suspected anything at the time of their deaths.”
“No. Both had been under doctors’ care. Only Detective Sharpe had a feeling something was going on. But if there been ricin poisoning in those first two incidents, wouldn’t the victims—if they were victims—have shown the same symptoms as Kawika and arouse suspicion?”
“Apparently they didn’t.”
“Roland says castor plants grow all over Hawaii. But as far as the first two deaths, there’s no way of knowing what really happened now.”
Nat finished off his beer. “I’ll find some information on the web and print it out for you.”
“That’s really nice of you, but I can look it up myself. You’re here to relax.”
“Look it up in your non-existent spare time, you mean? I’m on break, and I love to research. Especially when my own work isn’t involved,” he said.
“If you really want to I’d appreciate it.”
“I do. No problem. I’ll have some information for you in the morning.”
He studied her so long she blushed.
“Would you go to dinner with me sometime?” Nat asked.
“You mean actually have dinner somewhere other than here? What a concept.”
He laughed. “Do you ever get a night off?”
“Not routinely. I did just take most of the weekend off.”
“Being with the Hula Maidens isn’t exactly relaxing or time off.”
“A night away from all this chaos sounds great.”
“So how about it? Is tomorrow too soon?” he asked.
“How about Wednesday?” She needed a couple of days to check their inventory and cut Sophie and Kimo’s paychecks. The Tiki Tones needed to be paid. There was a stack of inquires about catering estimates and schedules to go over.
“That sounds great. You can let me know which night is best tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll look up some information for you and bring it by.” He pushed back and got up.
Em rose and walked him to the door.
“Any particular place you’d like to have dinner, Em?”
“Somewhere without a hula dancer or a paper umbrella in sight.”
“How about Kintaros? No Hawaiian music, plenty of saki.”
The Japanese restaurant was a good forty minute drive away in Waipoli, but the food was great and the service A-1.
“That sounds perfect. I’ll look forward to it.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when Roland came walking through the door. He glanced around the deserted room and paused just inside.
“I was just driving by and saw the door open. If you’re closed . . .”
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m . . . we’re not.”
She introduced the two men. Nat offered his hand and they shook.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Nat told Em before he headed out the door and across the parking lot.
Roland watched him leave.
“So what are you looking forw
ard to?” He leaned against the bar.
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you say you were looking forward to something.”
“Playing detective?”
“Always.”
She walked back to their table, picked up the empty beer bottle and carried it over to the bar.
“He’s going to do some online research on ricin and poisons for me.”
“You told him what’s going on?”
She moved closer to him.
“That’s all right, isn’t it?”
“By now it’s no secret,” he said.
“So I told Nat about the ricin poisoning and asked what he knows about it. He was a writer for CDP: Hawaii for years.”
“Solving fictional crimes on television.”
“Is that sarcasm I hear, Detective?”
“I’m just saying.”
“They can’t just make things up, you know. He’s worked with forensic doctors and all kinds of experts.”
He pushed off the bar. “I get paid to know when people are evading the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you say ‘That sounds perfect. I’ll look forward to it.’ Are you really that thrilled about getting research material?”
“Thrilled? I sounded thrilled?”
“Okay, maybe not thrilled.”
She thought for a minute he was kidding and then realized he was dead serious.
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. If anyone overheard they might think you were jealous. Seeing as how you’ve never actually asked me out on an official date, I find that pretty amazing.”
He took a step closer. “Is that what you’d like? To go on an official date?”
She tipped her head back to look up at him. “You’re psychic. You tell me. Besides, I am going out on an official date. Nat asked me out to dinner.”
“I meant do you want to go out on an official date with me?”
“Well . . .”
Without warning she found herself pressed against him, his hand cupping the back of her head, and he was kissing her. He kissed her until she felt it down to her toes, and she was pretty sure her flip flops were starting to melt right before he abruptly let her go.
Two To Mango Page 22
