Murder and a Blue Hawaii

by Elizabeth Autumn

  “There’s not much to tell,” said Kai. “He came by last minute. He must have heard from someone that my beauty was on the market.”

  “Evan Clay bought it, though, right?”

  “No, Evan decided against it. Between you and me, I think my Lady was out of his price range. Bentley, on the other hand, sounded like he could afford it no problem.”

  “Was he going to purchase it?” I asked.

  Kai perched one leg on top of a box he had lying around. “He wasn’t that interested in the boat, to be honest. It was probably going to be an investment thing for him. It doesn’t matter. I don’t sell to just anyone. I want this boat to go to someone who will appreciate it.”

  “I wish you luck on that,” I said.

  “No luck required. I found someone just this morning. A striking young lady, perfect for my old lady here. They’ll work well together.”

  I thanked Kai as I hurried to rejoin the treasure hunt.

  I had a hunch that Bentley wasn’t interested in the boat because he was interested in what Evan was doing. He had been following Evan, I was sure of it. It was too big of a coincidence that Evan saw Bentley.

  Bentley had been keeping tabs on Evan—but why? Evan had already paid off his debt. What was Bentley trying to learn?

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  As I hurried back to my friends, I whipped my clue out of my pocket.

  Walk the plank.

  I suddenly understood why Landon had been wandering to the edge of the boat with the clue. He had been looking for a plank to walk.

  The other side of the clue had an address on it. No coordinates this time, just a normal address written out. After meeting back up with Maya and Landon, we raced to the location.

  Within the speed limit.

  And through Waikiki traffic.

  So, not race car driver status.

  The address brought us to a local pool with a diving board. No one else was around, but there was a large banner with the image of a wooden pirate ship, complete with a plank and skull-and-crossbones sails. Next to the banner, for some reason, was a milk advertisement.

  “That’s got to be the plank,” I said, gesturing to the diving board.

  The pool was empty and, judging by the lack of ripples in the water, and the wet deck, we weren’t the first to arrive.

  “Do we have to get wet?” asked Maya, wrinkling her nose. “I’m not wearing pool-appropriate clothing.”

  Landon was leaning over the side of the pool, gazing into the water. “There are rocks at the bottom with plastic bags attached to them.”

  “I’ll get yours for you,” I said.

  Landon and I jumped into the pool at the same time. Well, I jumped in. Landon did a cannonball after telling Maya to back up a few steps.

  I quickly grabbed two rocks and swam back the surface. By the time my head broke water, a few other contestants had arrived. They jumped in as I climbed out.

  I attempted to wring out my soaking wet clothes as Maya read the next clue out loud.

  “X marks the spot,” she said.

  Landon grabbed two towels from a stack nearby that I hadn’t noticed. Handing me one, he said, “I think we’re at the end of the hunt.”

  “What’s the address?” I asked.

  Maya flipped the clue over. “There isn’t one.”

  I stared at her. “It could be anywhere. There has to be something to narrow the search perimeter.”

  Landon rubbed his towel on his sandy hair. “Is there something on the rock?”

  Maya examined it. “No. It was just there to weigh down the clue.”

  Taking the clue from her, I ran my fingers over the paper, trying to figure out why there was no address.

  “Maya, did you bring your portable hair curler?” I asked.

  “Do I look like the kind of person to leave my place unprepared?” Maya asked, indignant. “It’s in my purse, which I left in your truck.”

  “Perfect,” I said in delight.

  When we got back to my truck, I plugged the cord from Maya’s miniature hair curler into the outlet.

  “What are you doing?” asked Landon in complete confusion.

  “Madison had milk in her car,” I said. “I don’t think she was drinking it. I think she used it to write a hidden message.”

  “That’s going a bit far, don’t you think?” asked Maya.

  I thought of the banner next to the pirate ship. It was an advertisement for milk, with the caption: Secrets are Better Shared with Milk.

  The picture was of a plate of cookies next to a glass of milk. I’d assumed it was an advertisement, but there was no branding of any kind. It had to be a clue.

  I held the hot iron over the paper. As I did so, a message slowly started to appear in brown letters.

  “Blue Hawaii,” I read out loud. “What? I didn’t have anything to do with the treasure.”

  “This could damage your chance at winning,” said Maya. “If the other pirates think you organized the treasure hunt, you’ll be disqualified.”

  I shook my head in frustration. “I don’t get it. Why would Madison do this?”

  I started the truck. I still had to try to win. The lure of the prize money was too strong to ignore. Maybe the pirates would believe me. They seemed—ironically—like an honorable bunch.

  Except for Peyton and Tristan. Those two would give me some trouble.

  Once we arrived at Blue Hawaii, I immediately understood. The bar wasn’t open for the day yet, so in front of the empty place, there was a pile of shovels.

  We were going to have to dig for buried treasure.

  I scooped up a red plastic shovel and scanned the sand for an “X.”

  “Natasha and Shawn both beat us here,” said Landon, shielding his eyes from the sun. “They’re both checking out the beach for clues.”

  “Wonderful,” I muttered. The clock was ticking.

  Maya glanced at her phone, which was lighting up with a text message.

  “Henry says he’s going over to Micah’s to have a chat with him. Henry’s had about as much luck as we’ve had in tracking him down,” said Maya.

  “Where would he be?” I asked, not really paying attention.

  Maya crossed her arms. “Hiding from the law?”

  “Yeah.” I agreed with her. Micah’s behavior was incredibly suspicious in the aftermath of Bentley’s body being found. “Where would he go? This island is only so big.”

  “Maybe he’s escaped to the mainland,” said Maya ominously.

  “I hope not,” I murmured as I spotted a curious display of trash. It was too organized to be random littering. When I got closer, I saw the “X” shape and sighed, both disgusted and relieved.

  Really? Trash?

  I grabbed the empty chip bags, napkins, and straw wrappers, making it a point to throw them away in a nearby trash can.

  “For someone who hates germs so much, you sure spend a lot of time picking up trash with your bare hands,” said Maya.

  I grimaced. “What else am I going to do? I don’t carry a pair of gloves with me at all times.”

  Hmm. Gloves would be a great thing to stash in my back pocket—especially when investigating a murder. Crime solving was a dirty business.

  I dug into the sand.

  And dug, and dug, and dug.

  And dug.

  When I had a large hole a couple feet deep, I took a break. Why wasn’t I finding anything?

  That’s when I noticed Natasha digging into a shiny “X” made of fake gold coins.

  This was a decoy “X.” I chose the wrong place to dig!

  Natasha soon hit something solid and pulled out a treasure chest. And, just like that, it was game over. I’d lost.

  Natasha beat me to it. She won the contest and I was devastated. There went my last chance of redemption. I’d never be able to come up with the money in time.

  What was going to happen to me?

  I absentmindedly ran my fingers through my hair. My beautiful, fully-in
tact, not-shaved-down-the-middle, hair.

  It didn’t matter anymore that the treasure was found steps away from Blue Hawaii. I hadn’t won. The prize money wasn’t mine.

  I was screwed.

  Natasha lifted the chest with trembling fingers. The genuine smile on her face when she saw her prize made me feel better. If I couldn’t win, then at least someone else who needed the money did.

  “Congratulations,” I told her.

  “Thanks,” said Natasha, in shock. Her watering eyes spoke volumes of gratefulness.

  Maya and Landon offered her their own congratulations as I took a walk toward the ocean to clear my head.

  Shawn passed me by with a bright grin on his face as he went to hug Natasha. “Whoa! You did it. Good on you. That chest is something else. Look at those sparkles. I love the extra effort put into it.”

  His words faded away as I stepped closer to the water’s edge.

  My debt wasn’t going to be solved by a quick fix or scheme. I couldn’t win the money. I’d pay it with my own hard-earned cash. Somehow.

  I was going to have to convince Donna to let me pay the debt in six months, like originally planned. It wasn’t fair of her to move up the timeline. It hadn’t been fair of Bentley to do that.

  I may not have been able to convince a dead man to change his schedule, but I was going to do whatever it took to convince Donna.

  This was a heavy blow, but it left me right where I started. I wasn’t worse off for entering the contests. I’d even enjoyed them. I’d figure it all out eventually. I always did.

  Once I’d collected my thoughts, I went back to my friends.

  Landon put an arm around me. There were no words that would erase my debt—the feeling of his arm, however, went a long way in comforting me.

  Maya looked up from her phone. “I just got word from Henry. Micah wasn’t home, so he asked around to see if anyone knew where he was. No one has seen him since the night of Bentley’s murder. Micah’s missing.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  No signs of Micah’s whereabouts surfaced. He had seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. Henry promised to update Maya if he got word of where the suspect could be hiding, but so far, he hadn’t.

  With Micah nowhere to be found, I turned my attention back to Sophia Barber. Her promise to give me information about anyone I wanted was something that I planned on using to my advantage. But, first, I had to find the infamous Donna Barber.

  Other than the one time she’d briefly come into Blue Hawaii, I had no idea of who she was or where to find her. It wasn’t like she had left a calling card with all her personal details on it.

  If I was going to find Donna, then I had to go to the last place I wanted to visit.

  There was a place that Bentley frequented regularly. It was where I had negotiated with him to get the money for my bar. It was somewhere that I never wanted to go again.

  I parked my truck, paid the meter, and dragged my feet to a nondescript door in the middle of a boring street. Businesses and stores were on this street, all clearly marked.

  Not this door. The chipped white paint was uninviting. The peephole gave no indication of what was going on inside. I swatted away a bee.

  Then, the door opened. A burly man appeared and raised his eyebrows. I gave the password.

  “Cockroaches.”

  He gestured for me to enter and I walked into a dimly lit room with paintings of sailboats and sea creatures on the walls. The floors were scuffed and stained, the tables dented and scratched. The people appeared either lonely or unsociable.

  I went up to the bar counter—which was rife with fingerprints—and smiled wryly at the bartender. “Colton, I’d like an iced tea and some information on Donna Barber.”

  Yeah. Colton Bradley, my neighbor, was standing in front of me wearing black clothes and a slightly shocked expression. In addition to his job at the leasing office, he bartended part-time at Golden Hibiscus, an exclusive bar for the lowest of the low to mingle and relax.

  All right, so it probably wasn’t only for the lowest of the low, but considering that this was Bentley’s famous hangout spot, it was a safe assumption that these patrons were not the most law-abiding citizens.

  I’d tried to convince Colton to join my team at Blue Hawaii once, back before Kimo had come aboard, but he had turned me down. Colton preferred Golden Hibiscus’s dark and suspicious atmosphere to Blue Hawaii’s open and inviting one.

  He had claimed he never knew what to expect, so he never got bored. I couldn’t argue with that, even if I preferred knowing that I wouldn’t get accidentally stabbed in the back when I went to work.

  “I thought you swore off Golden Hibiscus,” said Colton.

  “I did,” I answered grimly.

  “This must be urgent if you couldn’t wait to catch me at home,” Colton said easily.

  “Sort of,” I said as he handed me the iced tea. I would have gone for a Long Island iced tea, but I wanted my wits about me in a place like this.

  “Donna Barber,” Colton mused. “Yeah, she’s a regular. Not someone I’d recommend to have afternoon tea with, mind you. Good thing you like coffee, Alana.”

  “Yeah,” I grumbled. “Lucky me.”

  “Donna’s here right now, actually. She’s over there.”

  I followed his gaze to a woman with an off-center nose sitting alone in the back corner. The lighting was especially dim around her and I could barely make out her shape.

  “Alana?” Colton’s unusually serious eyes unsettled me. “If you can avoid talking to her, I would.”

  My smile faded into a tight line as I grabbed my iced tea and joined Donna without a word. I sat across from her for a full minute, where we had a stare-off.

  Up close, the darkness did the harsh lines on Donna’s face a world of favors. The natural bright sunlight at Blue Hawaii made her appear menacing, but here? Here, she looked as friendly as Colton did.

  Except for her intense gaze. No amount of shadows could soften that iron gaze.

  I spoke first, not as a sign of weakness, but because I didn’t have all day to play mind games. “Your daughter is looking for you,” I said.

  Donna’s voice was deep and crackly. “She’s got my number.”

  I folded my arms. “I think you’ve got hers. Sophia’s under the impression that you’re after the money people owed Bentley and you’re using her to collect it.”

  “She’d be correct,” said Donna slowly.

  “Your son is dead. That money’s not going to bring him back,” I said in an attempt to get her to forgive the debts.

  “No, it won’t.” Donna took a long drink of her scotch. “It will, however, help me out.”

  “Your son is dead. You’re basically stealing from your daughter. And here you are, without a care in the world. Do you care that your family will never be the same again?” I demanded.

  I couldn’t believe I was standing up for Bentley. I hated the man. He was conniving, vicious, and unforgiving.

  I now understood where he got those traits from. His cold mother had taught him well. I was surprised that Sophia was so well-adjusted, considering.

  “My family is not one of those pleasant units that walk everywhere hand-in-hand.” Donna set her drink on the table with a thud that reverberated throughout the bar. “This is a cruel world and the only way to rise above is to take what you can get and make the most of it. Bentley’s gone. I’m not going to let his efforts go to waste.”

  “And Sophia?” I asked.

  “Sophia’s not like Bentley and I. She’s got her own thing going on. I never ask for favors. Helping me one time won’t kill her.”

  My mouth gaped open. Donna’s raspy voice had no emotion in it. It was cold, calculated, and bored. She clearly saw this conversation as a waste of her time.

  I stood up. All Sophia had asked for was to locate her mother. I didn’t have to convince her of anything.

  “One last question,” I said. “Was Bentley dating anyon
e recently?”

  Donna took a long look at me before scribbling a name and address on a napkin. “I never liked her. She wasn’t good enough for Bentley.”

  I took the napkin, relieved that something about this visit was worthwhile. I waved to Colton on my way out, not stopping for a chat. I wanted to get as far away from this grimy place as I could get.

  There was a piece of paper on my windshield when I returned to my truck. I groaned. “I’m only a few minutes late!” I said to no one in particular, grabbing the parking ticket.

  The meter had run out about half an hour ago. More than a few minutes, but still. It wasn’t like I was trying to sneak under the radar for some free parking. I had simply accidentally lost track of the time.

  I shoved the ticket in my pocket, adding it to my mental checklist of bills that needed to be paid.

  After spending a considerable amount of time in Waikiki traffic, I made it back home and immediately knocked on Sophia Barber’s door.

  She was home, which made life easy for me. For once.

  I told her where Donna was and Sophia asked for more information.

  “You didn’t ask for a home address!” I said indignantly. “That’s all I could find. She likes Golden Hibiscus, which makes sense. It’s a seedy place for seedy people. Talk to Colton if you want to know more.”

  Sophia nodded, accepting my news without further protest. “Who do you want to know about?” asked Sophia, upholding her end of the bargain.

  I had thought a lot about my answer. Asking about Micah Robinson was the obvious choice. He was the prime murder suspect and any information could be useful. But Sophia slipped under the radar a lot. I had to make sure I wasn’t missing something and where better to get information on Sophia than directly from the source?”

  “You,” I said simply.

  Sophia’s mouth gaped open. “Me! Why?”

  “You put on the mourning act for your brother quite well,” I said. “The messy hair, the wrinkled clothing. It all looks like you can barely pull yourself together.”