Seductive Reasoning (TASK FORCE HAWAII Book 1)

by Melissa Schroeder

  “What are you thinking?” Adam asked.

  “Listen, this could very well be our worst nightmare. Or, she could have made herself disappear for any number of reasons. There is also a chance that all three of the girls cooked this up. They could be out to gain publicity. I don’t think it likely, but let’s cover every base we have here.”

  Everyone stood and started to prepare to leave, but Emma asked, “Hey, what about me?”

  “Cat and I can drop you off at your condo.” He looked at Adam. “Send her all the info you have on Susan right now. And, everyone tag her when you send me stuff.”

  “I can help with the girls,” she insisted, following him into his office. “There might be something I can get from the interview that you would miss.”

  “No. You need to go do what you do best. Look at Susan and Grace. See if there is a connection someway.”

  “But—”

  He knew one way to shut her up would be to kiss her, but she would probably belt him if he did that in front of everyone. Instead, he grabbed her by the forearms and forced her to look at him.

  “I need you to do this. I need your expertise. If this is the same guy, you might be our best chance to save her. As of right now, we’ve lost at least three days. Going by Grace, we could have less than two weeks to find her. This is what I need from you right now. We have no evidence, but if you can zone in on something we might be able to find her.”

  She drew in a deep breath and nodded.

  “Let’s go. Everyone, keep us up to date. Maybe she just decided to go off and play for awhile.”

  But deep down, in his gut, Del knew she hadn’t.

  “You don’t think that,” Emma said as they made their way to his truck.

  “No. But, hey, maybe for once we’ll get lucky.”

  “We can only hope,” Cat said.

  “Hope often leaves you shattered if you aren’t careful,” Emma said, as she slipped into the backseat of his pickup cab.

  Cat let one eyebrow rise and Del ignored it. He knew that Emma’s experiences taught her more than any of them would understand. And right now, he couldn’t be distracted.

  Susan Tanaka was depending on them.

  * * *

  After dropping Emma off, they drove to Susan’s apartment. One knock and the door opened. The young woman on the other side of the door had swollen eyes, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in at least three days. She was Asian American, with long honey brown hair and dressed in what Del considered the college uniform in Hawaii: a T-shirt and board shirts.

  “Captain Martin Delano, TFH. This is Cat Kalakaua. Can we speak to you for a second?”

  She studied his badge, then nodded. Stepping back, she waited until both he and Cat were in the tiny apartment before shutting the door. Another young lady, about the same age, blonde haired and blue eyed, sat on a futon-type couch. She looked like she had been crying also.

  “My name is Diane Fung, and this is my roommate Bethany Brown,” the first young woman said. “Please, sit down.”

  After they both sat down on the available chairs, Del said, “We wanted to talk to you about Susan.”

  Diane shook her head, her eyes filled with regret. “We tried to tell the police. We tried to tell them she had gone missing. We should have just refused to leave.”

  “The important thing is you tried, and we are here to help,” Cat said, her voice in the same soothing tone Del had heard her use before. It didn’t seem to help this time though.

  “It still doesn’t seem to be enough, though.”

  “I understand,” Del said.

  “No, you don’t,” Bethany said, her voice rising. “You don’t know that we just knew.”

  Cat gave him a glance and stepped in to take over. Even with all his training with his younger sisters, this age usually still perplexed him. They weren’t girls, but they still hadn’t gained maturity.

  “I can see that. College life…in each other’s pockets, right? When I was your age, we used the buddy system. I always made sure that friends knew where I was going to be if I wasn’t with them. Safety in numbers, and if you don’t have them, make sure your friends know, right?”

  Bethany sniffed into her tissue and nodded. “Yes. We are all so careful. You remember that rapist they caught a few months ago?”

  Cat nodded as she glanced at Del. A serial rapist had been roaming the college parts of town, preying on tipsy college girls. It had taken two months to catch him. By the time they caught up with him, he had raped at least six girls.

  “So we always check in. Always,” Bethany said. “But she said she was going to the mainland. That’s what she said. We assumed it was to see her parents, but when she didn’t return, we got worried.”

  “And you tried to call her?”

  Diane nodded. “Yes. It went straight to voicemail.”

  “You were worried that she disappeared when she didn’t show up to work, not school.”

  Bethany offered him a sad smile. “Susan says that life was too short to worry about attendance all the time.”

  “But she wouldn’t miss work,” Diane said. “We’re saving up to take a trip to Australia this summer. It is all she talked about. Missing work means missing out on money. She wants to see the Great Barrier Reef. We all do.”

  “Jin said she might be the victim of the Akua killer,” Bethany said. “Is that true?”

  He blinked, looked at Cat, then back at the girls. “The what?”

  “That’s what they are calling the man who killed that schoolteacher. The Goddess killer. Why do you think they call him that?”

  “Do you think he abducted Susan?” Diane asked.

  His mind went blank. They had kept that little bit of information to themselves and no one, not even her family, knew about the tattoo.

  Cat stepped in when he fumbled. “We really don’t know anything yet. It might all be a misunderstanding. If she caught a way to make money some other way and just forgot to tell you. So, remember, if you hear from her, you call us first. We’ll make sure we call Jin and tell her all about it.”

  Both the girls nodded. They left them with their cards, hopeful they would stop talking to Jin, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t. They were both genuinely upset, but Jin would use them, and in return, they would become celebrities of a sort.

  “Did you let anyone know outside of TFH about this?” Cat asked as they walked down the hill to his truck.

  He shook his head. “We need to check in with everyone on the team. This was not supposed to leave the office.”

  If it did, they would lose that tiny leverage they had right now.

  * * *

  “Have you made it out here for a luau?” Marcus asked as Graeme pulled into the parking lot.

  He shook his head. “I keep meaning to, but I never seem to find the time. We should do a TFH night here or something.”

  “Well, without Emma. She doesn’t like crowds.”

  Graeme chuckled. “Oh, she will deal with them. Don’t you remember her going on and on about Disneyland a few months back? Her brother took her and she would not shut the hell up about it. Besides, I have a feeling if Del is with her, it won’t bother her much.”

  Graeme parked up front and they both got out of the truck. It was so damned hot out today. Hawaii usually had mild temps even through the summer, but the trades weren’t really great today. Add in the higher than usual temps, and it was making him long for Scotland in the dead of winter.

  “Damn bloody heat.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Dude, you’re going to have to chop off all your Goldilocks.”

  He grunted but didn’t respond. He walked into the pavilion area. He lived over on the North Shore, and hadn’t made it out to what some called the West End of Oahu that much. It was drier, and while all traffic on Oahu sucked, it could particularly suck on the West End. One downed pole over the highway, and people were cut off.

  This area was populated by newer homes and condos, along with Disn
ey’s newest resort.

  “Can I help you?” a young woman dressed in a luau costume asked.

  “We need to talk to the manager, or someone in charge of the dancers,” he said as they both flashed their badges.

  She nodded. “This way.”

  She led them to a tiny hut that looked like it would be blown away in a stiff breeze, but once they stepped inside, it was all modern.

  “Danny, these policemen need to talk to you,” she said.

  A tall Hawaiian man stepped out of the back room giving them a smile. He wasn’t as tall as either of them, but he was built like a stone statue. And apparently, he had no problem walking around half naked.

  “Danny Aiona. How can I help you?”

  “We’re looking for some information about Susan Tanaka.”

  His smile faded. “Of course. I can’t tell you much about her. I’m the supervisor, and therefore the enemy, but she’s a good girl. Always on time, never misses work. That’s why I was so surprised.”

  “Do you know if she was seeing anyone?” Marcus asked.

  “No. But then, the girls don’t share with me. Let me get some of the girls here so you can talk to them. They’ll definitely know more than I do.”

  “Thanks,” Graeme said.

  He picked up the phone and punched a couple buttons. “Hey, Lani, could anyone who knows Susan well come to the office? There are some policemen who would like to speak to them. Thanks.”

  He hung up and smiled at them again. “So, how’s Cat Kalakaua doing?”

  “You know Cat?” Graeme asked.

  He chuckled. “We went to school together, and she gave me my first speeding ticket.”

  “So, got any horrible stories about her?” Marcus asked.

  “Many.”

  * * *

  Charity had Jack Johnson’s latest single blasting in the lab when Del showed up.

  “About time you got back,” she said. He offered her a cup of coffee and she smiled. The team members of TFH knew just how to get her to work for them.

  “What do you have for me?” he asked.

  She clicked a few buttons. “What I have is a possible bastard sighting.”

  The screen showed an SUV roll to a stop.

  “I went back and found out that this SUV stopped somewhere right off McCully.”

  “He didn’t park on the bridge?” Del asked, obviously looking at the screen.

  She shook her head. “There is no parking on the bridge, so he might have been worried that he would draw more attention to himself.”

  She punched a few more keys, and the video picked up someone walking along the street, then turning onto the bridge. There was a large bundle over his shoulder, but it could have been anything. Then, he was out of frame.

  “That’s all I have.”

  “Could you follow the SUV after it left?”

  She nodded and brought up that bit. “You can watch him here…then he pulls over here and leaves it. He walks into that alley and just disappears.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Oh, but I have something for you.”

  She blew up the screen. “Looked up the license plate and guess where it is now?”

  He looked at her.

  “It was impounded. It is being sent over, and I will get my grubby hands on it tonight.”

  He kissed her cheek. “You are an ebony queen.”

  She smiled. “And don’t you forget it, boss man.”

  “Let me know what you find.”

  “Of course,” she said, sipping on her coffee as she walked out of her office. She had a car to take apart and play with. She needed to change.

  * * *

  Del walked into the squad room just as his phone chimed. It was McGregor.

  “Yeah, I have you on speaker.”

  “Marcus and I talked to a few friends of hers here at work. Some of them had no idea she was missing, but there were one or two who claimed that Susan was involved with a man.”

  He looked at Cat, who nodded. Damn, he hated when she was right, but maybe she was just off with the new man having fun.

  “That’s news to us. Her roommates didn’t know about a man.”

  “She just met him recently. Called him Sugar Daddy when she talked to him on the phone. She told a few of the girls here that she was going away with him for a few days.”

  “Interesting. Did they say why she might not have told her roommates?”

  “Not sure.” Marcus said. “Although one of them gave us the idea that the man was older, and something about one of her roommates might be jealous. Other than that, nothing.”

  “Okay. Come back here and we can mobilize with HPD.”

  “Oh, Cat, we met Danny Aiona today,” McGregor said.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, so?”

  “He had a lot of interesting things to share about you.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but Del pushed on. They didn’t have time for this shit.

  “Quick question. Did either of you mention the tattoo to anyone?”

  “Nope,” McGregor said.

  “I thought we were keeping that under wraps,” Marcus said.

  “We are, but somehow someone let it leak. Or something. The press is calling it the Akua Killer. The Goddess Killer, in other words.”

  “Well, fuck us. Neither of us gave it away,” McGregor said.

  “Okay. Get back here as soon as you can, and we’ll go over some things.”

  He clicked off the phone just as Adam came breezing back into the squad room.

  “Hey, Boss. Talked to the parents. Nothing. They had no idea she was missing. They usually talk to her about once a week, but her parents were out of town all of last week. They went on a cruise, so they didn’t have good contact with her.”

  “And that would have been planned months in advance. Something Susan would have known about and might tell her boyfriend,” Cat said.

  “Are there things you would tell your boyfriend and not your friends?” Del asked.

  She snorted. “Yeah, and the other way around too. Young women at that age can really cause problems with relationships. Plus, if he is older, there’s a chance he’s married. He might have insisted on it for that reason.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s a simple misunderstanding.”

  He looked at her, and knew from her expression, she didn’t believe it. He glanced at Adam.

  “Yeah, I am going to err on the side of caution,” Adam said. “The woman has been missing several days, and what did Emma say? She thought for sure he already had another woman?”

  He nodded. It was one of those times he wished she had been wrong. He was betting that she wished that, too.

  “Did you reveal anything about the tattoo to her parents or anyone?”

  Adam shook his head. “I thought we were keeping it out of the press. All I asked them was about her feelings about the tattoo.”

  “We were. And without her parents knowing, we have a problem.”

  “Why?” Adam asked.

  “Well, Jin is calling him the Akua Killer.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You don’t think Emma told anyone, do you?” Cat asked.

  He shook his head. “Do you think she would willingly talk to a person?”

  Cat chuckled. “No, I guess not.”

  “I’ll double check with her, but I think we might have a really big issue here,” he said as comprehension lit Adam’s eyes.

  “Fuck, we might have a leak somewhere.”

  “Bingo,” he said. “And, if we lose the killer because of this, whoever leaked the info is going to wish he had never been born.”

  Del would definitely make sure of it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Two days of hunting for the college student did not give them anything. The entire police force, the UH college campus, and the majority of Oahu had come together again to search for the young woman. They had covered the island and found nothing. The idea that this young woman had jus
t disappeared off the island with no trace was absurd. Worse, after checking all the airlines and going through hours of security recordings, they knew she had not flown off the island. Other than by boat, that woman could not have left. Del’s irritation with the newswoman continued to grow as they watched the update she was giving on the news.

  “Still no leads in the investigation, even with TFH in control of it. The amount of money spent on the task force is exorbitant, and it has led many to question if they are worth the price.”

  “Turn it off,” Del said. “I can’t deal with that woman any more.”

  Adam shook his head. “She isn’t far off, Boss.”

  He looked at his friend. “What? You think we deserve that shit?”

  “No. But I know a lot of people are questioning us.”

  “Let me guess. A couple of the asses who didn’t get my job?”

  He nodded. “I’m not saying it’s all true, but damn, it’s fucking frustrating.”

  Del couldn’t disagree with that. Every lead had dried up. No one knew who she was dating. They had yet to find a traffic cam video of her leaving the Luau Paradise show that night. On top of that, they had hoped to find something in the abandoned car, but the only thing Charity found were strands of Grace Singh’s hair and carpet fibers. If they found the guy, then they might be able to connect him.

  “Any word from Emma?” Adam asked.

  He settled his hands on his hips. “I texted her an hour ago. She texted back BO.”

  “BO?” Adam asked.

  “Bugger off.”

  “So, nothing in that realm and now this crap. I’m not sure how much more we can take, Boss. It seems every inch of this island has been searched.”

  “That’s impossible, knowing some of the areas around here. The hiking trails alone lead to all kinds of places that have not been searched. Our problem is the lead time he has on us. Not knowing where and when she disappeared doesn’t help. He is a crafty bastard.”