Ukulele Murder: A Nani Johnson Aloha Lagoon Mystery (Aloha Lagoon Mysteries Book 1)

by Leslie Langtry

  She squints. "It's so far away. Do you think it's the same one?"

  I shrug. "I can't tell, but it does seem suspicious."

  The door swings open as if it's been kicked in. Gina stares at us, and Elizabeth appears over her shoulder, looking like the Revenge of the Two-Headed Roommates. They do not look happy that we are here. I wonder if that's a sign of guilt.

  They do not invite us in. "What do you want?" Gina says the word you as if it has a bad taste.

  "We were visiting a friend in Wailua and thought we'd stop by to offer our condolences one more time." Binny gives her best sympathetic smile.

  "You two were awfully distraught at the funeral," I add. "We were kind of worried about you."

  Gina softens a little. "Well, that's nice of you."

  "But we prefer to mourn in our own way and in private, thank you," Elizabeth snaps.

  "One more thing," I say quickly. "I borrowed a ukulele from Leilani once and never got around to returning it. Do you know how we can contact her next of kin?"

  The women look at each other earnestly. It's obvious they are trying to communicate telepathically. I can't help but wonder if they truly are.

  "I'm sorry," Gina says as she starts to close the door. "We don't know of anyone."

  I put my foot in the door. "She didn't have any family?"

  Gina looks at my foot and then at me. She sighs. "No. She was estranged from every relative she ever had."

  I could definitely understand that.

  Elizabeth cocks her head like a bird. "There was this one aunt Finnegan, I think? She lives on the mainland."

  Gina nods. "But she hasn't been here to see Leilani in years."

  "Wait," Binny asks. "What about the lady in black?"

  The roommates look genuinely confused. "Who?"

  I speak up. "At the funeral. In the back of the church. There was a lady covered from head to toe in black. Was she related, do you think?"

  Elizabeth shrugs. "I guess I didn't see her." She looks at Gina, who shrugs also.

  "So what should I do with the uke?" I ask. I'm hoping they don't want it, because I didn't want to give one of mine away.

  Gina says, "Keep it. We don't want it." She kicks my foot out of the way and slams the door.

  "That was weird," Binny says once we are back in the car.

  "Weird that Leilani didn't talk to her family, or weird that they acted so strange?"

  "Both. Who cuts off every single member of their family like that?"

  "You didn't know her." I grimace. "She was so mean that even a dog wouldn't like her. That must be why this aunt Finnegan isn't in the picture."

  "This might mean it's a family member who killed her," Binny says. "Didn't you say she's half Hawaiian?"

  "She told me that many times, mostly to rub my face in it."

  "Then"—Binny bites her lower lip—"she must have family in the islands somewhere."

  I sit up a little straighter. "That's true. But why weren't they at the funeral?"

  Binny shakes her head. "No idea. 'Ohana traditions are pretty strict. You don't miss weddings or funerals, no matter what."

  "I wonder why we didn't think of this before now."

  "What can we do about it? We don't know Leilani's mother's name, or we could check it out." Binny goes back to biting her lip.

  "We're in over our heads," I say. "There are just too many factors we can't figure out without a hard-core private eye." I slouch back against the seat.

  "It was fun being a detective though." Binny smiles. "You made a great sidekick. Like Dr. Watson."

  I wiggle my index finger. "Oh no, I'm Sherlock Holmes. You're the sidekick."

  Binny laughs. "All right, you win."

  "I guess we should just put all of our efforts into my defense case."

  We drive the rest of the way back to Aloha Lagoon, rehashing the same details over and over with no new ideas. As Binny drops me off in my driveway, I realized that we have nothing. Nothing at all.

  "Mom!" I call out as I enter the house. "I'm home."

  I walk to the kitchen and pour a glass of water. The kitchen is kind of a mess. Leave it to my mother to trash the place and expect me to clean it. I put some dishes in the sink and spot a pan in the middle of the floor. Great, I think as I stoop to retrieve it. She's wasted. That's all I need.

  "Mom!" I shout. "You could've cleaned up after yourself."

  No answer. The woman is probably asleep on the lanai or in the living room. I walk outside. Nope. Not here. I head back into the house and make my way toward the living room. I can hear the TV on. She's probably passed out.

  The room is empty. No, it's worse than empty. It's chaos. Furniture is turned upside down, and the TV is facedown on the floor. Even the little hula dolls are scattered and broken—which kind of seems unnecessary. The couch cushions have been flung to the four corners of the room.

  "Mom?" I call out as I run to her bedroom.

  It's been trashed too. The bedding is on the floor, and a mattress wobbles unsteadily against the wall. Every dresser drawer is open, and clothes are strewn about as if a typhoon has hit. I run to my room only to find it is also trashed.

  My heart is pounding. What am I supposed to do now? I race to the kitchen to grab my cell phone and am about to call 9-1-1 when I see it. A piece of paper is taped to the microwave.

  It says, Keep your nose out of my business, or something terrible will happen to your mother.

  This is bad. This is very, very bad.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I dial 9-1-1, and when the dispatcher answers, I explain what has happened. Ten minutes later, Detective Ray and two officers are at my door. And for once, I'm happy to see them.

  "Are you sure she didn't just go out?" he says as he walks through the house.

  I stare at him. "You must be joking. Why would she trash the house and write me a threatening note?" I mean, Mom is crazy, but she's not insane.

  Ray says nothing. He just pokes around each room, as if my mother will jump out from behind a door, shouting "Surprise!"

  "You see now that I'm being framed, right?" I ask in an attempt to get him to speak.

  "Maybe," the detective says. "You could've taken her to a friend's house, trashed the place, and written the note yourself."

  I lose it. "You can't be serious! Why would I kidnap my own mother?"

  "To deflect suspicion from yourself," Detective Ray says calmly.

  I notice one of the officers fingerprinting furniture. The other one pokes around but doesn't really do anything. This is getting nowhere.

  "I called you because I need to find my mom," I say through gritted teeth.

  "Or you called us as a red herring," Detective Ray says.

  I throw my arms up in the air and scream. It has no effect. None whatsoever. I take out my cell and dial Nick. He should be home now. Maybe Vera knows what happened to Mom.

  "Nick!" I quickly tell him what's happened. "Has your mom seen mine?"

  I can hear Nick talking to someone in the background. I strain to try to hear, but it's no use.

  "She's not here," Nick says. "She was supposed to meet my mother an hour ago, but she never showed."

  "Oh no," I barely whisper.

  "I'm coming over," Nick says before hanging up.

  I can't protest, because what could I say? I shove my cell back into my pocket and tell the detective what Nick said.

  He shrugs.

  Pretty soon I'm going to become a real murderer.

  I call the community center and a few other places, but no one has seen my mom today. Nick bursts through the door without knocking and wraps me in his arms. I give in because I need it. I refuse to cry, because what good would that do?

  "I can't find her, Nick." My voice cracks a little. "She's not at any of her usual haunts."

  This seems to get Detective Ray's attention. "She really is missing, isn't she?"

  I wonder if I can say Duh without coming off as rude or sarcastic.

  "
Of course she's missing." Nick pulls away, and I can hear anger in his voice. Nice.

  "If you'd done your job since the beginning, this wouldn't have happened!"

  Wow. Nick is mad. I kind of like it. And he's right.

  The detective looks from me to Nick. "We'll wrap things up here and get back to the station. I'll let you know what we find."

  The two other officers magically appear and follow Detective Ray out the door. I close it behind them and hang my head. I really don't want to cry, but it's all been way too much. More than I can bear, really.

  "Nani." Nick lifts my chin. "It's going to be all right. I promise you."

  I shake my head. "I doubt it. I don't think anything will be all right ever again."

  Okay, so I'm being dramatic. My mom's been kidnapped, and someone is framing me for murder. I deserve a little self-pity.

  "Do you have your cell with you, in case she calls?" Nick asks.

  I nod.

  "Then let's go see Pastor Dan in the hospital. Maybe he's out of his coma. Maybe we can get something out of him as far as who did this."

  That's a great idea. I need to see him to make sure he's all right anyway. Nick locks the door behind us, and we drive to see my boss.

  "How is Pastor Dan Presley?" I ask the nurse at the front desk.

  "He's starting to come out of it," she says. She looks stern. A very large woman with a name tag that says Doris, she's not someone you could mess with easily.

  "Can we see him?" Nick asks.

  "I'll have to ask his wife," she says. "Hold on." Doris disappears down the hall.

  His wife?

  "I thought you said he's not…he doesn't…" Nick struggles with what to say.

  "I did. He's gay. He told me that." Something isn't right.

  "Stop!" Doris's voice barrels down the hallway.

  Nick and I race down the hall and see a woman, about my height—maybe a little taller—with long brown hair, running out of a room and away from us.

  "It's the killer!" I shout as I take off after my impersonator.

  Nick is hot on my heels, and I can only imagine from the thundering behind me, so is Doris, but I don't stop. Whoever it is has gotten pretty far ahead of me, but I still spot that long brown hair. The hair that's meant to implicate me. I'm not letting this bastard get away.

  I turn a corner to find two gurneys barring my way. The killer turns right. I shove the beds aside and keep going. I'm not letting him out of my sight. He has my mother. I want her and my life back.

  Nick catches up and actually passes me. He turns the corner before I do. When I get there, Nick has stopped. He's looking furiously around.

  "Where did he go?" I'm out of breath.

  "Or she." Nick is in better shape than I am.

  Doris catches up with us. She looks like she's going to have a heart attack. I kind of love her for trying to keep up.

  "What happened?" I ask.

  "His wife…" she says between breaths, "she was holding a pillow over his face when I got there."

  I gasp. "Is he okay?" Please, please don't let Dan die!

  She nods and swallows hard. "I think I got there just in time. If you two hadn't come in…"

  She doesn't finish the sentence, and I don't want her to. I don't want to hear what I know would be true if we hadn't showed up.

  "I'll call the police and tell them to be on the lookout for Mrs. Presley," she says.

  I shake my head. "Pastor Dan isn't married. And if he was, it wouldn't be a woman."

  Doris looks at me curiously. "Really? She wasn't related?"

  "Are you sure it's a woman?" Nick asks.

  The nurse shrugs. "I thought so. But I didn't look too carefully. She came in when two victims from a car accident arrived. There was a lot going on. I can't be sure."

  We follow her back to Dan's room to find two nurses in there taking the man's vitals. He looks so weak. So fragile. But he's alive. That's the good thing.

  "Dan?" I take his hand in mine. "It's me, Nani."

  Dan's eyes flutter open, and he smiles weakly. "I thought that was you."

  "What do you mean?" I ask.

  "The woman who tried to kill me. She looked like you. But it wasn't you. She didn't seem right."

  At least I have an alibi for this one. "Did you recognize her? Was she the same person who hurt you last night?"

  Dan nods in the affirmative and then grimaces in pain.

  "You need to go," one of the nurses says. "He isn't in any shape to talk to anyone now."

  I nod. "We're going, Dan. But I'll be back, I promise."

  Dan smiles and then closes his eyes.

  By the time we get to the front desk, Detective Ray is talking to Doris, and one of the uniforms from earlier heads down to Dan's room. We stand there until they are done speaking.

  Doris says, "She looked like this woman. I think she might’ve been wearing a wig. The hair didn’t look right."

  I wanted to hug her. Maybe she should be a detective, because she's already better than Detective Ray.

  "And where were you?" The detective turns his attention to us.

  "I've been with her the whole time." Nick steps forward protectively. "We came straight here. Nani didn't do it."

  Doris nods. "They came in and asked to see Mr. Presley. They were right here when I found the woman holding a pillow over that poor man's face."

  There it is. The police would now have to know I didn't do it. And they'd have to know that this was the real killer coming back to finish off a witness who knew I didn't do it. And she was disguised as me, so it's obvious it's all a setup.

  "Maybe." Detective Ray shrugs. "We don't have all the facts yet."

  Say what?

  "You must be blind if you don't believe us," Doris roars. It scares me a little. "That girl didn't do it. Someone dressed like her and tried to kill this poor man. You need to get your head straight!"

  We watch as she storms off, looking very fierce. I really like her.

  "I'm going to post an officer outside Pastor Dan's door," Detective Ray says before walking down the hall toward Dan's room.

  "How does he not see it?" I rage. "Even Doris sees it!"

  Nick nods. "I know this is going to sound terrible, but I'm glad the killer came back. She tipped her hand and destroyed her attempt to frame you."

  I agree. "You're right. That does sound terrible."

  Nick winks. I throw myself into his arms and press my face into his shoulder. He's not a bad guy—just eager. It's great to have him at my side right now.

  Detective Ray comes back to the counter. He starts to walk away, changes his mind, and joins us.

  "You must understand that I have to investigate every lead," he says expressionlessly.

  This is probably the closest I'm going to get to an apology.

  "You're just doing your job," Nick says after a moment of hesitation.

  The detective nods. "I didn't want to believe it was you. You seemed sincere at Kua and Leilani's funerals."

  Finally!

  "Did you see the lady in black at both funerals?"

  Detective Ray nods slowly. "Yes. I don't know who she is. She vanished before I could find out. But I don't think it's anything important. Just someone who mourns a little differently."

  "I guess you found Leilani's remains," I say.

  He cocks his head to one side but says nothing.

  "Because of the huge orange coffin," I explain. "There wouldn't be a coffin if you didn't have a body."

  "We never found the body," the detective says. "Just several quarts of blood. She couldn't have survived that fall."

  "You declared her dead without a body?" I'm kind of shocked, but I guess the alternative would be to fight the shark that found it.

  "Blood counts as remains," Detective Ray says. "It's connective tissue. It's proof that if she hadn't been washed into the ocean, we'd have a body."

  I shiver as the detective leaves. "That's gruesome. Too gruesome."

  N
ick nods. "They've done that before. When remains can't be retrieved, people still buy a coffin so they have something to bury."

  My cell buzzes. It's Mom.

  "Mom! Where are you? Are you okay?" I put the phone on speaker so Nick can hear it.

  "Nani?" Mom sounds shaky. "They have me here. They want you to turn yourself in and confess to the murder, or they say they're going to kill me."

  Nick and I look at each other. They?

  I think I stopped breathing. I just got out of being a suspect, and now I had to confess to something I didn't do?

  "Let me talk to them," I say as calmly as possible.

  "No, they don't want to talk to you," Mom says. I hear a strange rustling, like the sound of people walking through a cornfield. Growing up in Kansas, I heard that sound all the time.

  Nick turns pale. He grabs a piece of paper and pen from the front desk and starts writing.

  "Okay, Mom. I'll do it now. Tell them I'm on my way to the station right now."

  "I'm supposed to tell you that once they know you're arrested, they'll let me go."

  I look at Nick. The note he wrote says I should agree to the terms.

  "It's going to be all right, Mom. I'll do what they say."

  The call ends.

  "What was that all about?" I ask.

  Nick grimaces. "I know where they are."

  "You do? How could you know that?"

  "Because," he says, "I recognized the sounds of the foliage. They're in my hedge maze."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The cornfield sound. "Are you sure?"

  He nods. "The acoustics and the sound of rustling shrubbery. It doesn't sound the same as a jungle."

  "You're certain?" But I know he's right. We used to go to corn mazes back home, and it sounded just like this.

  "I am a botanist."

  "So what do we do? Call the police?" I don't really want to do that. What if the killers hear the sirens and just kill Mom?

  "We're going to go there. And then we're going to spring your mother."

  Detective Ray studies my cell phone as if it's a purple centipede. "You want me to wait for them to call and tell them you are in custody?" He repeats the plan we've given him one more time.

  "That's right," Nick says. "Meanwhile, I'll go to the hedge maze and rescue Nani's mother."