Burned

by Carol Higgins Clark

  But what, Regan wondered, do you have going on in Kona?

  59

  N ed had barely slept. He woke as the sun rose and went for an early morning run. All he could think about was the fact that someone, probably Glenn, had taken the leis out of his gift-wrapped box and replaced them with cheap imitations. That’s a premeditated crime, he thought angrily. But whoever did it knows I’m a criminal, too.

  Ned ran hard for ten miles, something he hadn’t done in a long time. When he reached a deserted stretch of beach, he took off his shoes and shirt and dove into the water. It felt good to move, to kick his feet and let loose. When he saw a big wave approaching, he decided to ride it in. The undertow was strong. It pulled him under, threw him around, and then finally retreated. Ned struggled to his feet. A mass of broken shells blanketed the ocean floor.

  “Ow!” Ned cried. He had stepped on something sharp. He limped to the sand, sat down, and pulled a shard of glass out of the bottom of his second toe. Blood was pouring out, and it looked to Ned as if it needed stitches. But there was no way he was going to risk that when Will’s mother was coming to town, the woman who had been obsessed by that very toe thirty years ago. If he was going to let any doctor look at his feet, it would be after Almetta Brown was long gone from the Hawaiian Islands and all talk of royal leis had ended.

  Ned sat in the sand and applied pressure to the cut with one of his gym socks. He was rewarded with the sight of a white sock turning bright red. With the piece of glass he had just pulled out of his foot, he cut a piece off his sock and tied it around his toe. He squeezed back into his shoes and limped back to the hotel. By the time he got back to the room, his foot was incredibly sore and still bleeding.

  As he showered, watching the blood trickling out of his toe wash down the drain, all he could think about was that the ball would be over and the leis would be gone tomorrow. That was fine with him. But what to do about that bellman Glenn? He’s definitely up to no good. A thought occurred to Ned: Could Glenn be behind the trouble at the hotel? He seems to be everywhere. And Will has him running around all over taking care of things. But if he is up to no good, I can’t do anything about it, Ned realized. And who knows? He could already have set me up with the cops.

  Now I’m really getting paranoid, Ned thought. He stepped out of the shower, dried off, and tied wads of toilet paper around his toe. He didn’t have any Band-Aids and wasn’t about to start poking through Artie’s shaving kit. Thankfully, Artie wasn’t around. He must be downstairs with the Hudville group, chowing down at the buffet.

  Ned got dressed, then reached into his closet and tried on the shoes he had worn surfing yesterday. They felt very tight. He took them off and put on his sneakers. When I get the word from Will that his parents are here, I’ll change back into the beach shoes. I can’t exactly go in the ocean with my sneakers on-Will’s mother would certainly notice that. From the sounds of it she hasn’t changed much in thirty years. She probably still notices everything.

  Ned went back outside to join the world with one goal for the day: to not get arrested.

  60

  “I ’ m so worried.” Carla’s mother was on the speaker phone talking to Regan and Will. “It’s so unlike her. She finally gets engaged after all these years and then drops off the face of the earth. It doesn’t make sense. My Carla would have been calling me every five minutes to discuss the wedding. No one has heard from her since yesterday. And now you say it looks as if they hadn’t slept in their room!” Her voice cracked, and she started to cry.

  “Mrs. Trombetti, we’re going to do everything we can to track them down. Don’t forget, she did just get engaged. Carla and Jason may just have decided to go off and have a few days to themselves, shutting out the world. This is Hawaii, and there are lots of romantic places where couples go to be alone.”

  “Not Carla. If she’s away from a phone for a few hours, she gets withdrawal symptoms.”

  Regan could hear her sniffling.

  “And how much more time alone does she need with Jason? They’ve been together for ten years. I’m surprised the bloom isn’t off the rose. I was so happy they got engaged before they got sick of each other.”

  Regan raised her eyebrows. “You know the police don’t even count them as missing persons yet because they are adults and are free to do as they choose. They’ve been gone only twenty-four hours. But we’re going to do everything we can to find them.”

  “Wasn’t there just a drowning at the hotel there? My husband was looking up the news from Hawaii on the Internet.”

  “Unfortunately, there was,” Regan answered. “An employee from the hotel. But she was alone. It’s unlikely that your daughter and her fiancé-”

  “I know, I know,” the woman interrupted. “But, believe me, I know my daughter. As much as we might spat with each other, she doesn’t ignore my phone calls or go this long without talking to any of her friends.”

  “I understand,” Regan said softly. She spent the next few minutes trying to reassure Carla’s mother. But she knew how her own mother would feel if she suddenly disappeared. And she knew how excited her mother was about finally planning a wedding. When Regan hung up, she looked at Will and asked, “How many of these kinds of calls do you get?”

  “Enough,” he answered. “People come to Waikiki on vacation and want to be free. The batteries on their cell phones die. Or they travel around to areas where there’s no service. Relatives get worried. These days people are used to being in constant touch. But this couple just got engaged. Maybe they decided to do something wild.”

  “Maybe,” Regan answered cautiously, “but I wish Carla hadn’t been on the beach the other night.”

  “I know,” Will said quietly.

  “Can I take a look in their room?” Regan asked.

  Will stood quickly. “Let’s go. I’m sure we have her mother’s permission.”

  Inside the neat room with the king-sized bed, everything looked in order. In the bathroom Carla’s toiletries were lined up. Two toothbrushes were standing side by side in a glass.

  “Wherever they are, they didn’t plan to stay overnight,” Regan observed.

  “You can buy a toothbrush anywhere,” Will answered.

  “You can, but-” Regan pointed at the lotions and creams and sprays that covered the marble countertop-“I don’t think Carla is the type to wing it. I’d lay a bet she’s never gone camping in her life. Certainly not without her face creams.”

  Regan walked over to the desk and glanced at the notepad with the Waikiki Waters Resort logo that was next to the phone. Regan picked it up and walked to the terrace door where the light was bright. Whoever wrote the last message had written with force and left an impression on the next sheet of paper. When she saw what had been written, she inhaled sharply.

  “What?” Will asked.

  “It says Kona. There’s a flight number and a time.”

  “You see!” Will said with relief. “They took off for a little fun on the Big Island.”

  “But, Will, those twins were in Kona yesterday. I accidentally saw one of their boarding passes.”

  Will’s face blanched. “It still doesn’t mean…”

  Regan looked at her watch. “It’s noon. Let’s go look for the twins.”

  “Then what?”

  “I’ll figure it out,” Regan answered.

  They hurried downstairs and looked around the pools, scoured the beach, and went in and out of all the restaurants but couldn’t find anyone from the Mixed Bag Tour group. They went back to Will’s office and called all their rooms. No answer. Regan went back outside and spotted the young girl from the group coming out of the women’s clothing store. She looked bored.

  “Excuse me,” Regan greeted her.

  “Yeah.”

  “I was next to your table this morning when the tour leader’s purse fell onto the floor.”

  “Oh, right,” Joy said. “She handled that really well, didn’t she?”

  Regan smiled. “I
need to talk to her. Do you know where she is?”

  Joy shook her head. “They were going to sit by the pool today and do their dunking, as they like to say, but then all of a sudden they decided to check out more hotels. They don’t want to go to the ball and said they’d see us tomorrow.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on with them.”

  “What do you mean?” Regan asked.

  Joy rolled her eyes. “They usually make us stick together for every meal so they can count every penny we spend. For the twins to be gone for lunch and dinner is highly unusual, believe me. And they said they were going to a sunrise service tomorrow morning so they won’t be here for breakfast, either. Praise the Lord.”

  “Thanks for your help,” Regan said.

  “No problem. Anything wrong?”

  “No.”

  Regan hurried back to Will’s office. “They’re gone for the day and night. Will, I’m worried. I’ll bet you anything they’re on their way back to Kona, and I’ll also bet that’s where Carla and Jason are.”

  Quickly Regan sat down and called Mike Darnell. “Mike, I need a passenger list for a flight yesterday to Kona.” She explained the situation.

  Within minutes he called back. “All the parties you mentioned were on that flight yesterday. The two women returned in the evening, but the couple didn’t show up for their flight. They didn’t return their rental car, either, and they said they’d bring it back yesterday afternoon. It’s a white sedan with traces of yellow paint on the side. The two women just got off a flight that landed in Kona ten minutes ago.”

  “Oh, my God. We’ve got to find them.”

  “That’s a big island. It’s why they call it that.”

  “Can you put out a bulletin for the rental car? I’m going to get a flight over there now.”

  “And then what?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Regan, I just talked to a buddy of mine who has a private plane. He said he was heading out to the airport. Let me give him a call and see if he can take us over to the Big Island. Hold on a second.” Regan waited tensely until Mike came back on. “I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes outside the hotel. This is probably crazy.”

  “It’s not,” Regan said firmly. She hung up the phone and looked at Will. “I need to get into the twins’ room.”

  “Regan, I don’t know if I can-”

  “Will, I absolutely need to-”

  “Let’s go,” he said for the second time that morning. They dashed out of his office.

  In the twins’ room there seemed to be two of everything: two pairs of matching fuzzy slippers, two identical bathrobes, two pink suitcases. Regan went over to the desk and pulled the drawer open. Inside she found a thick file. She pulled out its contents. “Architectural drawings for a house,” she breathed. Regan read the words written across the top of the first sketch-“Gert and Ev’s Kona dream house.” “They’re using Sal Hawkins’s money to build a house.” She stuffed the file in her bag.

  “I don’t know whether you should take those,” Will warned.

  “I’m taking them. The twins won’t be back until tomorrow.” She looked through the rest of the desk, closet, and bureau drawers but found nothing.

  They raced back downstairs where Mike Darnell was already waiting.

  Gert and Ev had rented a car at the airport. To their distress, the line had been long and the car hadn’t been gassed up. By the time they filled the tank and pulled out of the gas station, they were both feeling impatient and edgy. They were now speeding up to their dream house.

  “Boy, is this a change of plans,” Gert commented.

  “Things are getting too tense,” Ev answered. “There was something about the way that girl was poking around on the floor today, helping you pick up all your junk.”

  “I gave her my scary look,” Gert answered. “But she did see that Kona postcard.”

  “I saw her take note of that. I just want to get that couple out of our house before anyone finds them there. And their stupid car. The sooner we get rid of them, the better.” She stepped on the gas.

  “So we’re not going to throw them in the water tonight?”

  “We’ll see. We’ll strangle them now, stuff their bodies in the trunk, and then see if we can abandon the car somewhere.”

  “I’d rather let it go over a cliff.”

  “Me, too. But it’s several more hours until dark. I don’t want to wait that long.” She turned off the main highway onto a two-lane road that wound up a mountain. They were only a few miles from the house.

  “We’re almost there, sister.”

  “We certainly are.”

  “When we land, they’ll have a list of all the real estate agents for us,” Mike told Regan. “Although who knows when the twins bought the land. They may not have had any dealings with anyone for a while.”

  “And I’m sure the house is being built privately and they’re using false names,” Regan added. “But those two are easily identifiable. How many female identical twins in their sixties are on the Big Island building their dream house?” She looked down at the sketches for the exterior of the house, the expansive kitchen with a view of the ocean in the distance, the matching master bedroom suites. She tried to slip the drawings back in the folder, but something was in the way. Another piece of paper. Regan pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a sketch for a barbed wire fence.

  “Will, Regan needs to speak to you now!” Janet called to him. He was out by the front desk talking to Jazzy and Claude. “It’s urgent!”

  Jazzy and Claude hurried off. Will got on the phone, listened, dropped it, and ran after Claude. “What’s your address on the Big Island?”

  A police car was waiting for Regan and Mike at the Kona airport. They hopped in, Officer Lance Curtis turned on the siren, and they took off. Let them be there, Regan prayed. Please. She knew with certainty that Jason and Carla were in grave danger. Just let them be alive.

  Jason and Carla heard the upstairs door open. Carla’s eyes were wide with terror. They’re back, she thought. It’s over. She bent her head and started to pray again. Jason had already done so.

  The basement door opened. “Here we are,” Ev called. “Back to take care of the bad girl and bad boy.” The sisters lumbered down the steps.

  The police car sped up the long, curving private road to Claude’s house. It was heavily wooded, unpaved, and bumpy. At the top Regan, Mike, and Lance jumped out of the car. They ran around the back of Claude’s house and immediately spotted the barbed wire fence along the left side of the property.

  “The twins’ house must be in that direction,” Regan shouted.

  “It’ll take a few minutes to go back down the hill and around. The entrance to their driveway must be from the other side of these woods.” Officer Curtis ran to the trunk and pulled a wire cutter out of the police car. A few minutes later Regan, Mike, and the officer were racing up a hill and through the woods.

  When they reached the top of the mountain, they could see the house. It was in the middle of a large piece of land. In the driveway there was a white car with traces of yellow paint on the side.

  “That’s Carla and Jason’s car. They must be in there!” Regan cried.

  “Do you have anything to say to Gert and Ev before you die?” Ev asked, sounding half crazed. She was standing behind Jason, and Gert was behind Carla. They were ready to close their hands around their necks and squeeze the life out of them.

  Carla and Jason had been silently crying. As soon as the twins pulled the gags out of their mouths, sobs permeated the room.

  “Please!” Carla begged.

  “Sorry,” Ev answered. “You did a very bad thing. We don’t want you to spoil our fun. Because we deserve to have some fun.”

  “We sure do,” Gert agreed, her voice agitated. “We put up with a lot our whole lives. Always taking care of other people in that rainy town. Never thinking of what was good for the twins. Well, we finally woke up. Our lives had been wasting away
. When we got the opportunity to take care of ourselves, we grabbed it! And we’re not going to let people like you ruin it for us!”

  “No we’re not!” Ev echoed forcefully. “We should have taken control of our lives years ago!” Flexing her hands, she turned and looked at Gert. “Are you ready, sister?”

  “More than ready!”

  They started to close their hands around the couple’s necks when they heard glass breaking upstairs. A moment later the basement door flew open. But it didn’t stop the twins. It only made them more crazed. All the rage that had built up inside them was directed at destroying these two young lives.

  “Hurry, sister!” Ev commanded as she squeezed hard around Jason’s neck.

  “I’m doing it!” Gert answered. Her thick calloused hands had easily surrounded Carla’s slender, silky neck.

  Choking and gagging, Carla and Jason could feel themselves blacking out.

  Regan, Mike, and Lance galloped down the steps.

  “Let go!” Regan screamed as she tackled Gert whose body felt like a brick wall. Mike helped pry her fingers from Carla’s neck as Officer Curtis slugged a resolute Ev and knocked her over. The sisters tumbled onto the floor as Jason and Carla gasped for breath. Lance Curtis pulled out his gun and pointed it at the twins’ heads while Mike and Regan untied the ropes that bound Carla and Jason.

  Carla wrapped her arms around Regan and wouldn’t let go as racking sobs filled the room. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice quivering. Jason moved toward them, and Regan started to get out of the way.

  “No.” He pulled Regan close to him and his fiancée. The three of them huddled together for several moments as Carla struggled to stop crying.

  61

  W ill’s parents arrived shortly after Regan and Mike left for the airport. He escorted his parents to their room and told them to come down to his office after they’d freshened up. He didn’t say a word about what was going on with Regan Reilly.