Dead On Arrival (A Malia Fern Mystery)

by Kym Roberts

  Wide awake now, I zoomed in with my binoculars on the darkened car and caught sight of a blonde in the front seat of a Camaro SS. I couldn’t see the color, but I was betting the car had black racing stripes and pink wheels. She pulled her shirt over her head and threw it in the back seat, followed by, what I thought was a bra.

  I began to wonder at what point I would morph from being a private investigator (not a legal PI, just a surfer conducting a private investigation), to a voyeur. Most guys would be all over this, trying to get a closer look, but watching Windy primp for a hookup was not my idea of a good time.

  The glow of her cell phone appeared as she brought it to her ear and a few moments later, she exited the car. Three inch heels appeared on the pavement, followed by a skirt so short, I would bet it didn’t cover her ass in the back. She tossed her long hair over her shoulder in a practiced move of seduction. I couldn’t see her facial features, but I didn’t need to. My nemesis could be positively identified by…you guessed it, the boobs falling out of her tube top.

  Makaio would make the right assumption if he was here. Windy was making money the old-fashioned way. Why else would she dress like that?

  I had always wondered how she always managed to drive a flashy new car. I’ve seen her work as a hotel concierge, a tour guide, a waitress, and now a convenience store clerk, but none of those jobs could possibly pay for a new sports car every year. A second set of headlights appeared in my rear view mirror. I ducked down in my seat as it passed and headed straight for Windy. I couldn’t get a look at the driver, but from the shadowed outline of his head, it was obviously a man. Windy leaned into the window of the red Mustang in classic hooker style.

  The driver was no doubt getting an eye full, but after a few minutes, he drove away without even getting so much as a pinch. What was she up to? Windy returned and began walking in my direction. I put my hand on the ignition ready to beat it out of there if she recognized my car.

  She didn’t even give my Mini a second thought. She turned toward The Garden of the Gods condos and disappeared behind the hedge, right after she glanced up and down the road.

  She appeared on the other end of the row of bushes and I couldn’t help but notice her swagger had become much more animated. Chest bouncing, hips swaying, the cheeks of her ass were definitely visible. I could imagine her heels clip-clopped on the asphalt, like a horse in a parade. A parade of sexual seduction, in Windy’s case.

  The bouncy bunny guard exited through the rear of his small building and approached Windy with his flashlight illuminating her figure. It started at her face and traveled quickly down to her toes, but abruptly came back to her chest where it stopped. Almost like the delayed reaction, you have when you see a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk and you nearly fall flat on your face when you stop too quickly to pick it up. (Not that I’ve ever found a hundred dollar bill, my max is five.)

  Windy’s hand flew to her mouth with a coy giggle, a little boob jiggle, and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. She approached the guard, put her arm around his shoulder, and directed him to the gardens where I had hidden earlier.

  This was it. This was the reason why Makaio and I hadn’t seen anyone at the guard shack. The guard was off getting laid by a prostitute — Windy.

  Pai was not going to be happy. I hopped out of my car and ran across the street, camera and cell phone in hand. As I entered the property, I heard a car engine near the entrance, followed by the low rumbling grind of the electronic gate being opened with a pass card.

  Pai.

  I debated on waiting for him, but changed my mind when I heard Windy’s giggle in front of me. I couldn’t make out the words of the guard, his deep voice too soft to travel the distance between us. Windy was leading him toward the narrow stretch on sand on beach.

  I heard Pai’s car turn toward the opposite end of the complex, engine noise getting farther and farther away.

  Damn it. I debated calling him.

  “Yurrr nooot sub p-post be eear.” The guard objected. Sorta.

  Windy chuckled.

  They crashed through the underbrush, completely oblivious to the sacred grounds around them, but their route made it difficult to be quiet.

  “Ooof.”

  “Dammit! You stupid idiot. You better make this worth my while.” Windy’s voice no longer held its sultry tone as she cursed him.

  I stopped and listened to them struggling. Windy was definitely getting a work out by the sounds of her labored breathing. And it was another one of those moments when I wanted to be anywhere but there. Yet I had to get the pictures. Pictures of an act I really didn’t want to see. I debated the whole reason why I was doing this in the first place.

  Help me. His voice drifted over the brush.

  Hua. Closing my eyes, I fortified my resolve to find out what was going at The Garden of the Gods and approached the sex-on-demand display, my stomach rolled in outrage and revulsion. I forced my body forward, when all I wanted to do was turn, gag, and lose all that junk food I’d consumed.

  I reached the clearing, took a couple quiet, deep breaths and listened to the sexual grunts a few feet away. Pulling the branches of a fern back, I stuck the camera through the narrow opening. My index finger pressed against the smooth shutter release button and my flash lit up the area with quick bursts of light.

  Damn, I forgot to turn off the flash.

  I quickly snapped more pictures as Windy swung around, squinting for my camera lens.

  Breasts exposed, tube top rolled around her waist, Windy held the guard to her bare chest. I snapped the picture, the flash highlighting her surprised expression.

  My heart stopped. I froze in horror. Wendy wasn’t making out with the guard, she was holding…the headless body of the guard in a standing position. Where was his head?

  I couldn’t help it. At that moment, I became a girly girl. My scream pierced the air as I stumbled backward and tripped on the root of a banyan tree. Arms flailing, I grasped at anything to catch myself, but fell on my ass.

  My childhood playmate had turned into a murdering, head-eating, sex monster. The scream continued to echo through the complex as I scrambled to my feet and ran for my car. I didn’t care that I no longer had my camera or my cell phone. I just wanted the hell out of this garden of evil. Branches tore at my arms and legs, scraped my face as I ran to escape the demon. Panic completely consumed me.

  On some level I was aware that I needed to gain control of myself if I was going to live, but I didn’t seem capable of convincing my mouth it needed to shut up. Running through the garden, I hit the bamboo forest near the road and became lost in its density. I was making enough noise to wake up the dead, and yet I knew the guard wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.

  My hair tangled in a low hanging branch and pulled me backward like the snap of a bungee cord. My left shoe flew off as I struggled to maintain my footing. I yanked my hair loose and it flung across my face, my sight temporarily obstructed. I stumbled and pushed myself forward several more steps as my blouse caught on another branch tearing across my chest. I turned to go the other direction and ran into a brick wall.

  Hands grasped my arms and I realized it wasn’t a wall. It was a man. A very large man.

  Darkness masked the face of my captive. I struggled to get away, only to be held tighter. I kicked and screamed. Bit and clawed. I was a wild woman, hell bent on not losing my head.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Trapped, and still too far from the road, I used the last weapon available to me. I bit down on his solid chest.

  “Owwww! Shit, lady!”

  My feet left the ground and all I could think of was being hurled across the ground right after he finished sneering in my face. (Technically he’d be sneering into a mass of hair, but I don’t think either one of us saw it that way.) I gauged the distance to his body, reared my head back and slammed the top of my forehead into the bridge of his nose. We both toppled to the ground.

  “I’m a police officer. Calm down,
” he said from somewhere in front of me.

  Police officer? My vision was doubled, some features tripled, but I didn’t see any uniform and there was no way I was falling for that trick, especially since he had a gun in his hand while he stood above me.

  I waited for his move and prayed my vision would line up in single file. He shoved his gun in the back of his waistband and bent toward me, but his perfect ploy to ease my mind was destroyed as I kicked his ankles. Unfortunately, my assault sent him flopping on top of me with enough force to knock the wind out of a man the size of Pai.

  Stunned, I gasped for air but continued to swing until he seized my arms, his fingers clamping down on my forearms.

  “Calm down! Calm down! I’m here to help you,” he insisted.

  I froze under his weight, but struggled to breathe. Even if the lighting had been decent, I couldn’t see his face, thanks to my hair acting like a mass of seaweed over my eyes.

  “I’m going to get up,” He warned. “I’ll pull you to your feet so you can catch your breath. Don’t attack me. I’m a police officer. I’m here to help you.”

  He released my arms slowly, as if he was waiting for me to attack. When I didn’t, he quickly lifted his weight and jumped to his feet. I remained still, unsure if I should believe him or not. He reached down, grabbed my wrist, pulled me to my feet, and stepped back.

  “Are you okay?”

  That’s when I finally recognized his voice. He’d asked me that same thing when I fallen flat on my face in the parking lot at my apartment.

  “Makaio?” Disbelief and relief nearly buckled my knees.

  He grabbed my arms to keep me from falling, but still kept his distance. Like maybe he was scared I’d knee him in the crotch. Any other guy and I probably would have.

  “Malia?” He pushed the hair out of my face.

  “Were you going to shoot me?” I asked.

  “Not unless you pointed a weapon at me. Were you going to bite my nipple off?”

  “If I had to. I’m sorry, but Windy...” I pulled on his arm, attempting to yank him back into the forest.

  “Weren’t you trying to get out of the forest?”

  “Yes, but now that you’re here with a gun, we can’t let her get away.” My breathing was still erratic, but I stopped.

  “Wait a minute, who’s Windy?”

  “The chick who gave you my bathing suit top.”

  “Windy,” he said it slowly, like he was conjuring up her image in his mind. “The one who gave me her phone number?”

  A stab of jealousy went through me. I had no right to feel it, but it was there anyway. I nodded and tried to pull him into the woods.

  He refused to move. “What’d she do to you?”

  “She killed a man,” I managed to say.

  “She what?” Makaio released one of my arms. I had no doubt he was grabbing for his gun while he cautiously scanned the area.

  “We can’t let her get away. She killed that poor guard.” My voice was gaining strength and conviction. Having a gun on your side makes you feel a lot stronger, but Makaio had another idea. He put his finger to my lips and pulled me into a squatting position where we listened to the silence surrounding us. Nothing.

  “Let’s go,” he announced, starting to rise. “I’m taking you back to Pearl’s.” I started to argue, but a sudden movement in the brush silenced me.

  We squatted again and waited for what seemed like forever, before Makaio decided to make his move. We ran through the woods, his hand tightly wrapped around mine, urging me to hurry. His route was so much better than the one I’d taken. Clear, and branch free.

  Two minutes later, we were standing next to the wall, nowhere near my escape route, and Makaio lifted me over. He followed my retreat to the street, hauling himself over the ancient stone fence. I went into the crook of his arm and directed him to my car parked in the shadows up the street on the opposite side.

  “Was Pai with you?” Dressed in BDU’s and a tight t-shirt (did they make them any other size for men as large as Makaio?) his voice was stern, but I was pretty sure at least half of it was out of concern for his cousin’s safety.

  “No, I don’t think so. I’m not sure.”

  He stopped and brought his face down to mine, searching me for answers I didn’t have. “Malia, that doesn’t make sense. Where’s Pai?”

  “I don’t know!” I insisted. Thinking of Pai being in the woods without a gun was about ready to turn me inside out. “He wasn’t with me. I heard a car come in, and I thought it was him, but that was before Windy killed the guard.”

  “Why did you think it was Pai?”

  “The guard who was working tonight made sure the arm was down. No one could pull a car through without using a pass card, or busting down the arm.”

  “Why would Pai have a pass card to this place?”

  “His company’s providing security for the construction site. They were supposed to be here until the job was done, but the owner died.”

  “Who’s the owner?” He knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it.

  “The man I found on the beach. Peter Johnson. His partner paid Pai in cash to provide security to watch the site, but Pai’s having problems with his guards. I told him the gate was open the morning I found Mr. Johnson’s body, and he wanted to know where his security personnel were. So he hired me to watch them.”

  He began guiding me back to my car, strolling down the sidewalk as if we were a couple, arm-in-arm. “You’re working for Pai?” He sounded relieved.

  I nodded, and for a second I thought he might kiss me, but we still needed to find Pai, Windy, and the headless body of the guard. He pulled his phone out and dialed his cousin. Voicemail answered.

  “How did you find me?”

  “I was doing some work on the plumbing at Pearl’s. So the next woman with an allergic reaction has a bathroom to use.” His eyes tracked my arms where the bites were hidden by the night sky. “You said Windy killed a guard?” He put his phone back in his pocket.

  “Yeah…she chopped off his head.”

  Makaio stopped. His eyes widened in disbelief. Beheading a person wasn’t an easy task, I got it…and the crime scene would be beyond gruesome, but I know what I saw.

  “Where did you see the body?” He asked.

  “In the middle of the garden, closer to the beach.”

  “You stay here. I’ll be right back.” He pushed me against my car that I hadn’t even realized we’d reached.

  I clawed at his arm, pulling him back toward me when he turned toward the complex.

  “If you go, I go.” I lost my fear, determined not to lose him. If Windy had removed a man’s head, she had a knife at minimum, but probably a weapon much larger. Like a machete. I wasn’t about to let Windy come near Makaio with a weapon like that.

  “Ain’t happening. I’ll go in and get her. You direct the dispatcher to where I’ll be.”

  “Nope.” My stubborn streak was wide awake now. “You either let me go in with you or you wait for backup.”

  “Malia.” He had that exasperated look that guys get when it’s time to do a macho thing and they need to shake the girl loose.

  It kind of pissed me off. Sure, I’d acted all girly a moment ago, screaming and all, but a man got decapitated. That had to count for something in the excuse column.

  I folded my arms across my chest.

  “Okay, fine.” He sighed. “Get in. We’ll move closer to Pearl’s. I had her call 911 when we heard you scream.” He sighed and watched the wall around The Garden of the Gods like maybe it’d be his lucky day, and Windy would try to escape.

  I wanted to point out that if the wall was too tall for me to scale, Windy wasn’t going to be lifting her bowling balls over it anytime soon.

  I dug in my pockets with hands shaking so badly my surfboard key chain fob clanked against the side of my car. Taking the keys from me, Makaio opened the passenger door and guided me into the seat before closing it. He scanned the area again, and for
a moment I thought he’d take off for the woods, his need to catch a killer visible in his adrenaline charged muscles, but he didn’t leave. True to his word, he walked around to the driver’s side, got in and started the car. We quietly pulled down the street closer to the entrance, and Makaio dialed 911 from his cell phone.

  “911,” the sterile voice on the other end of the line answered.

  “This is Officer Natua. I’ve been contacted by a citizen in regard to a…possible aggravated assault.”

  After talking to the dispatcher for a few minutes, Makaio hung up and called my brother, John.

  John answered after a couple rings, his voice groggy with sleep. “Detective Kumu.”

  “John, this is Makaio Natua. I’m with Malia at The Garden of the Gods condo complex. She just witnessed a murder.”

  “Malia?” I could tell that made my brother wide awake. “Is she okay? What happened?”

  “She’s working for my cousin Pai, checking up on his security personnel.” John cussed not-so-under-his-breath, and Makaio continued, “She says she saw one of the guards get beheaded.”

  “Do you have a body?”

  “Not yet, I’m waiting for an on-duty officer for backup.”

  “Okay, give me the address and I’ll be there shortly. And don’t let her out of your sight. Is that understood?”

  Makaio nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  He disconnected and I was surprised John didn’t want to at least talk to me, hear my voice. Something. My eyes began to well with tears, but the sound of an engine dried up my emotions. The silhouette of the light bar on the top of a patrol car eased up behind us. Makaio pulled out his police ID and waited for the two officers to approach.

  “Natua?” An officer asked as he came up to the driver’s side of the vehicle and flashed a light in Makaio’s face.

  “Yeah.” Makaio held out his ID.