by Toby Neal
Sophie’s phone buzzed, and she jumped. Only a few people had this number. She glanced at the little window, and answered. “Hello, Jake.”
“Hey, gorgeous. How’s the hiking?” Jake sounded upbeat and energetic.
“Not so terrific. Ginger’s nose led me to a body dump in the lava field. A whole Caucasian family, executed.”
“Do not discuss an active investigation!” Freitan snapped, walking toward Sophie. “Who are you talking to?”
“My partner at a private security firm,” Sophie said, as Jake fired questions in the background. “I will not discuss it with him further.”
Freitan folded her arms. “I’m going to want to speak to him. And your boss.”
“I’m on leave from Security Solutions,” Sophie said. “Personal leave. I won’t discuss what I found. Can I continue my conversation, as long as it stays away from that subject?”
“Give me the phone.” Sophie handed it over. “This is Detective Freitan with the Hilo Police Department. You are not to say anything to anyone about this discovery, do you hear?”
Sophie overheard squawks from the phone, presumably Jake agreeing.
“Good. If we have a leak, I will have your head. Here’s your partner.” Freitan handed Sophie the phone and turned her back, still fully listening in.
Sophie tightened her lips in annoyance, returning her attention to Jake. “I have happened upon a situation.”
“When do you not? Jeez, woman, you’re a magnet for trouble in paradise! But as it happens, I called to get your help on a case over there.”
“A case?” Sophie walked a little further from Freitan. “What kind of case?”
“Missing person. Julie Weathersby, age twenty-four, tourist-hiker, has vanished from her camping trip around the island.”
Sophie glanced back toward the gruesome body dump. She couldn’t be totally sure, but none of the bodies seemed like a single young female. “Want me to come back on the payroll to help you here on the Big Island? My vacation trip isn’t exactly going as planned.”
“Just what I was hoping you’d say. I’m coming over. Can you meet me at the airport?”
Freitan turned to Sophie with a look in her eye.
“Not sure, Jake. I don’t have a car. Call you back later.” She pushed the END button on Jake’s loud protest, and slid the phone into the pocket of her pants.
“I ran a background check on you. Your story checks out,” Freitan said.
“It would be incongruous to lie about being an FBI agent. Very easy to verify the truth.”
“I’ve heard crazier things.” Freitan smiled. “Know anyone in the department over here?”
“In fact, I do. Dr. Wilson, your psychologist, is an acquaintance. I am close with Sergeant Leilani Texeira. She is stationed on Maui but started her career here, I understand, under Captain Ohale.”
“Yep, Ohale’s my commanding officer and I remember Lei. We graduated from the academy around the same time. She was a good cop.” Freitan’s attitude visibly thawed. “Weird that you found this body dump while just out hiking.”
“Indeed it is. But not when you consider Ginger.” The dog, seated beside Sophie, pricked her floppy triangle ears at the sound of her name. “Ginger’s got quite a nose for dead things. So, was this family reported missing?”
“That’s what’s interesting. Empty wallet with ID was on the adult male body, and we called it in. Not reported missing, but the family does have an address in Ocean View.” Freitan gestured inland. “Big area of unregulated development and small landowners. Lot of weird shit goes down there. But I shouldn’t be talking with you about it, really.”
“I understand.” Sophie looked away across the lava. Hot air shimmered over the black stone. Hiking across it in the afternoon did not appeal, and the heat would likely blister Ginger’s paws. “Will you want to interview me at your station or anything?”
Freitan’s lips tightened. “Not sure yet. Got to check in with Captain Ohale.”
Sophie nodded and sat back down under the now-familiar ohia tree as Freitan left. She took out her canteen and poured some liquid into a collapsible pet bowl for Ginger, then drank the rest. She peeled an energy bar and gave Ginger some kibble, then rested her back against the tree’s rugged bole. The area was like an island in the sea of the lava; that was the gist of what kipuka meant, and it was aptly named.
Sweet-singing native birds flitted among the red blossoms above her, and Sophie reached out to touch one of the scarlet, tufted flowers.
“The legend of why the lehua blossom lives on the ohia tree is a sad one.” Her friend Lei’s voice filled her mind, telling her the story as they sat by a fire in Lei’s backyard on Maui. “The legend says that one day the fire goddess Pele, fiercely jealous, met a handsome warrior named Ohia, and asked him to marry her. Ohia, however, had already pledged his love to Lehua. Pele was furious when Ohia turned down her marriage proposal, so she turned him into a twisted tree. Lehua was heartbroken, and the other gods took pity on her. They decided it was an injustice to have Ohia and Lehua separated, and they turned Lehua into a flower on the ohia tree, so that the two lovers would be forever joined together. That’s why, if you pluck a lehua flower, you are separating the lovers, and that day it will rain.”
A little rain might not be a bad thing—the lava was too hot to walk on. Sophie plucked the lehua blossom and tucked it behind her ear.
“That’s bad luck, you know.” Detective Wong came out of the forest. The mixed Hawaiian-Chinese man was pale and sweating under his sterile gear. He tore off his mask. “You never pick the lehua.”
Sophie removed the blossom from behind her ear. “I heard a legend that picking one meant rain. That didn’t seem so bad.”
Wong fisted his hands on his hips and tipped his head back, sucking in deep breaths of fresh air. “Rain would wreck our crime scene. I thought I’d seen some things, but that was bad back there. Those kids. What the hell motive could there be for that kind of slaughter in a place like this?”
“I know.” Sophie stroked Ginger’s head, gazing into the dog’s soulful eyes, wishing she could erase the memory of the little girl’s bloated, mutilated face. “Looked like a mob execution to me. I’ve heard there are a lot of witness protection folks hiding on the Big Island. Have you checked in with the U.S. Marshals?”
Wong’s eyes narrowed. “Who did you say you were?”
“Witness protection leak—not a bad theory. Fred, this is Sophie Ang. She’s ex-FBI.” Freitan addressed Sophie as she stripped off her gloves and joined them. “I called some friends and they gave the thumbs-up about you. Said you’re a whiz with tech.”
“I am a whiz with tech.” False modesty wasn’t useful. “I am happy to help in any way I can.” Sophie didn’t want to compound her bad luck by throwing away the lehua flower, so she slid it out of sight into her pocket, regretting crushing the delicate blossom.
“It’s weird that the victims aren’t reported missing anywhere—but they wouldn’t be if no one knew who they were, and some federal agent thought they were safely stashed.” Freitan gestured to Wong. “Let’s run this by the chief and then reach out to Witness Security.”
“Can I get a ride to town? My partner is flying into Hilo for a missing persons job we’re going to work together.” Sophie needed to detach from the case. They weren’t going to let her be a part of it—but having found the bodies, seen that little girl . . . she always would be.
“Sure, we can give you a lift. We were about to head back to the office anyway, now that the techs and the ME are processing. It’s going to be awhile before we have any more information than we gleaned on our pass through the crime scene.”
Chapter Four
Jake picked up his duffel from the checked bags section at the Hilo airport. He hated checking a bag, but carrying his weapons demanded it.
Flying commercial was such a buzzkill.
Security Solutions was expanding its transportation fleet, but it looked like it would
be a while before the company jet was whisking anyone but their CEO, Sheldon Hamilton, around the world.
As soon as he picked up his rented Jeep, Jake phoned Sophie.
To his surprise she answered. “Jake. I’m on my way into Hilo with some detectives. Where can we meet?”
His heart didn’t just give a great big thunderous squeeze at the sound of Sophie’s sexy accented voice. No, his hands weren’t sweaty, gripping the steering wheel at the mere thought of being alone with her. He hadn’t just jumped on this job so he’d have a reason to track her down. Nope. Not at all.
Jake cleared his throat. “Let’s meet wherever they’re taking you. We need to start working with the local PD on this missing persons case, anyway. What station are you headed for?”
He listened to a muffled conversation, then Sophie said, “I will meet you at South Hilo Station in an hour.” She hung up.
Sophie often hung up on him.
What did it say about their relationship that she was usually either hanging up on him, leaving him, or getting a new burner phone with a number he didn’t have?
But he had this phone number. Her latest number. He’d memorized it immediately.
Jake glanced down at the inside of his forearm where she had written a series of digits in ink. She crossed her sevens and drew a line through her zeros. Only a faint tinge of blue still showed. Not that he had been consciously trying to keep the number from disappearing or anything—that area up there by his elbow was just out of handwashing range.
Jake remembered that moment in the restaurant vividly. She’d written the number on his arm with a ballpoint pen from the hostess stand; he’d said something funny and as she finished writing she froze suddenly, holding his wrist. He heard the deep inhale of her breathing. Electricity surged between them. She held his arm for a long moment, the pen pressed against his skin, not moving.
The atoms in him streamed toward the atoms in her—it felt weirdly metaphysical.
“Sophie,” he whispered.
This wasn’t the only time attraction had zapped them out of nowhere. They’d almost crossed that invisible line several times.
They’d saved each other’s lives more than once. Saving someone’s life tattooed the person on your heart a little bit—especially when that someone was so utterly awesome.
Sophie had flung his arm down and practically ran out of the restaurant. Jake was so repulsive to her that she’d jogged away to join that bastard Alika with his helicopter and smooth moves.
He was fooling himself, imagining that he could be the one to get past the ways Sophie’s sick, abusive ex had messed her up.
He’d tried to get over Sophie on their last job together by having a thing with Antigua, the estate manager at their client Shank Miller’s.
Antigua was great: gorgeous, a wonderful cook, hot in the sack, a really quality person. She’d given him the heave-ho after a month. “Make a move on Sophie, Jake. I won’t be anyone’s second choice.” Ouch. The lady was right.
He had to make a move on this trip. Sophie was still on the rebound from her boyfriend Todd Remarkian’s death. She was going to get scooped up by that rich player Alika if he didn’t do something.
Jake’s belly knotted. He’d already been stung by the nettle of rejection more than once when Sophie shut down his flirting. He’d never had trouble getting a woman he wanted before; but Sophie had ignored or refused his various tried-and-true gambits, shit that always worked with chicks in the past.
Jake was stuck in the friend zone, trapped between the pillars of work partnership and the way he annoyed her.
Yeah, he was too restless. Too loud. Too impatient. Had too much energy. Always wanted to take the lead. None of that was going to change.
Tough. They’d find a way somehow to rub along and give each other space—they already had, as partners. And he’d make up for how irritating he was by being so fucking good to her in bed she wouldn’t be able to walk or do anything but sigh and say, “Oh, yes, Jake. Yes.”
Jake missed the turn onto the highway because he was so caught up in his thoughts. He shifted in his seat, hot and uncomfortable, and pulled the Jeep over onto the side of the road to put down the soft top and get some more air, since the AC didn’t seem to be working.
“Dream on, Jake. She’s not into you. Why are you torturing yourself?” She was making him crazy. He was talking to himself like an idiot. He never got this twisted up about women!
Jake looked around at the urban sprawl outside of Hilo’s old town area. All vegetation was bright green, saturated by the Big Island’s frequent east side rains. Traffic was heavy on the busy freeway going into town. Hilo had the look of a place that had once been sleepy and small, but had sprawled into utilitarian growth.
Jake programmed the South Hilo PD location into his phone’s GPS, and fifteen minutes later was pulling up to a small, older building wedged between a Vietnamese nail salon and a laundromat. After parking, he pulled open a bulletproof glass door covered in peeling reflective coating, entering a tiny lobby guarded by a duty officer.
The individual was the size of a mountain and held a Sudoku tablet in front of him. He looked up at Jake and narrowed his eyes. “Help you?”
Jake showed his Security Solutions ID, introduced himself and his errand. “Our firm has been hired to find a missing person. I’m looking for Julie Weathersby. Anyone assigned to the case that I can interview?”
The behemoth typed in the name on his computer as Jake surveyed a row of hard wooden chairs, scuffed linoleum, and a crowded bulletin board. He recognized his client’s face on a missing persons printout thumbtacked to the board, issued by a company called FindUsNow.com. Her sweet-looking smile stood out among the most-wanted posters and a homemade ad for pet sitting. “Social Media can Find Us Now! Forward to a friend on Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook!”
The Weathersbys had probably employed that company, too. Jake took one of the several flyers and tucked it into his pocket.
“Detectives Wong and Freitan have that case. They are on their way back from the field.” The giant pointed to a hard wooden chair. “Sit and wait.”
Jake sat and waited.
Sitting and waiting was not something he enjoyed.
He worked his phone first, checking in with the office on Oahu to report that he had arrived and was meeting Sophie; then he logged into his case file. He already had one started for the Weathersby girl; he added a quick phone photo of her missing persons poster. He ran a search for FindUsNow.com and checked out the write-up they’d done on Julie. Apparently, she wasn’t big on any social media but Instagram; her last photo was of the big lava tube in Volcanoes National Park.
Bored, he stepped outside and got into the Jeep. He extracted a hand exerciser and a couple of heavy duty rubber bands from his bag, and using those, with his seat tipped back, he was able to run through a fairly complete upper-body workout. He was just getting ready to do another set of curl reps when an extra-duty truck towing an ATV on a trailer pulled up.
A male and female detective exited the truck along with Sophie and her dog.
Everyone looked overheated from being on the lava; their shirts were sweaty and their skin was gleaming. Sophie, dressed in a black tank and ripstop hiking pants, still managed to look stunning even with dark circles under her big brown eyes. He hated how she didn’t take care of herself.
Jake opened the Jeep’s door and stepped out. “Sophie!”
Ginger yanked loose from her owner to run over to him, thrusting her nose into his crotch and then lashing him with her sturdy tail.
Sophie grinned at the sight. “Someone is happy to see you.”
“At least Ginger knows a good thing when she sees it.” Jake joked. He wanted to grab Sophie and kiss her; he made do with a casual half wave, catching Ginger’s collar to drag the Lab, now investigating a trash can, back over to her mistress.
Sophie took the leash and introduced him to the cops. “Detective Freitan and Detective Wong, this is
my partner Jake Dunn. The detectives responded to the crime scene I found, and were kind enough to bring me here.”
Jake sized up the two. Freitan looked like a multi-ethnic Wonder Woman; tall with a curvy build and a shiny thick braid, her handshake wrung his hand like a truck driver’s as she ran an eyeball over him in a frank, full body check-out. Wong was wiry and short and disliked Jake on sight, judging by the squint of his eyes and his refusal to shake.
Jake forged ahead, adopting a confident manner. “Just the people I came to see. My agency, Security Solutions, has been retained to investigate the disappearance of Julie Weathersby. I hear you’re the detectives on the case.”
“Yeah. We are looking into that one. It’s early days yet. Her parents seem a little overprotective. She’s probably holed up with a dude, which can be fun.” The detective licked her lips and showed her teeth like she wanted to take a bite of him. “Can’t blame a girl for getting swept away by the right man.”
Jake ignored the byplay and grinned his most charming. “Well, since my friend Sophie here just found you a big case with that body dump, maybe you wouldn’t mind letting us run with the ball on the missing persons a bit.”
“Sure thing.” Freitan narrowed her eyes at Wong, who had opened his mouth to object. “Fred, the Weathersby case is back burner right now with this other discovery. Why not let the private dicks run with it?” She emphasized “dicks” in a way that made Jake squirm internally, though with an effort, he kept his expression neutral and his stance relaxed.
Wong gave an almost imperceptible head jerk towards the bull pen area through a closed gate. “We can give them what we have, at least.”
Chapter Five
“Let me just tie Ginger up and get her out of the way,” Sophie told Jake and the detectives.
