The day passed quickly. So much had to be done to get ready for the next day's Classic, and I'd volunteered myself to help Juls in whatever capacity she needed.
Jimmy found me after lunchtime, talking with vendors who would be exhibiting the next day. He stood a little ways off, arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the wall, black T-shirt stretched tight over his biceps, and a hint of a smile on his face. I finished my conversation with the sunglasses guy and walked over to where he stood.
"Hi," I said a little timidly. I was still a tiny bit embarrassed about waking up on top of him this morning. I mean, I was a grown woman and all, but until I knew what was going on between us, it was hard to relax.
"Red," he said, with a gleam in his eye and a smirk on his mouth. A very tempting looking mouth.
He pushed away from the wall and closed the distance between us. I had to look up. Way up to meet his gaze. The smirk had yet to leave his face. My breathing came faster, and my heart felt like it would jump out of my chest and straight into the waiting hands of Jimmy Toki. I had a feeling he knew exactly what he was doing to me. He reached out a hand and pushed a lock of my hair behind my ear.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Huh?"
Jimmy chuckled, a rough, low rumble that did all kinds of things to my insides.
"To go? To talk to Dax?"
I waited for the eye roll that was implied in those questions, but it never came.
"Sure," I chirped, much too brightly and not at all like my usual voice.
Jimmy's laughter rolled over me, and he took my arm and led me to his car. On our way, I handed the clipboard Juls had given me earlier back to her. "Need me later on tonight?"
"No, I think we have it covered. Thanks for all your help, Autumn."
"My pleasure," I said and grinned. I loved being part of a team.
Jimmy drove us to Dax's house, and we rode in relative silence. There was so much unsaid between us. I was such a coward, but I simply didn't want things to change. What if I was imagining it all? What if he was just being his normal flirty self, and I was reading things into it? What if my feelings were the only ones that had changed and Jimmy was completely unaware of it all?
Of course none of that made sense. He'd been the one to almost kiss me, not the other way around. But Jimmy wasn't known for long-term relationships, at least not in the three years I'd known him. So what else could it be except maybe an itch he wanted to scratch?
The thought saddened me, so I decided to think of something else. Like why Dax Toki had vandalized my locker that morning.
Jimmy turned down a long driveway that was lined with palm trees and bushes with huge, thick, shiny leaves. The mass foliage opened up into a green lawn, where the cutest house I'd ever laid eyes on sat before us. Though not stunning in its size or opulence, the brightly colored teal siding with the corrugated red roof was simply striking.
The lush Hawaiian forest sat behind the house, and I grinned at Jimmy.
"Dax lives here?" I was so confused. I thought Dax was young and had been working as a pizza delivery guy. No way he could afford this house on that salary.
"My aunt and uncle live here. Dax still lives with them."
Now that made way more sense.
We got out of Jimmy's piece-of-junk car and strolled up the front steps to the French doors. Jimmy knocked, and the door flew open, and a short, round woman, her dark hair falling over her shoulders, stood smiling widely. I smiled back, noting that I probably had a good inch on her. How in the world had she produced a behemoth son like Dax?
"Jimmy Toki! To what do I owe this surprise?" she bellowed, her large bosom heaving as if she'd run a marathon and we'd interrupted her. She stood on tiptoe and planted a loud kiss on Jimmy's cheek.
"Hi, Aunt Jan. We've come to talk to Dax. Is he here?"
"You want to introduce me to this beautiful young lady first? Aloha, E komo mai. Nou ka hale!"
"Hello, come inside. The house is yours," Jimmy translated for me.
I smiled.
"This is Autumn Season, my, um, friend," Jimmy said, and if I wasn't mistaken, there was a tiny bit of a blush in his cheeks. Interesting.
"Hi Autumn, Jimmy's, um, friend," she said, a light in her eyes and teasing in her tone.
I stuck my hand out, but she grabbed me by both shoulders, pulling me in for a hug. I waited while she kissed me on both cheeks, breathing in a scent I'd smelled before on Jimmy, a spicy aroma that reminded me of the incense from my college dorm room, with a touch of patchouli.
"Nice to meet you. I'm so sorry to show up unannounced."
"Oh hush. Jimmy's family. And family always has an open invitation. And any friend of Jimmy's is a friend of ours. Ohana."
She motioned us toward a bar at the kitchen. It was obvious that Jan did all her entertaining from her kitchen, and from the smells wafting from the stove, she already had dinner underway. My stomach rumbled. Jimmy quirked a brow at me, and I shrugged it off. I'd not had the stomach to eat breakfast after finding my locker vandalized, and I'd not had time for lunch since I'd been helping Juls all day.
"Are you hungry?" Aunt Jan asked.
I was afraid she must have heard my stomach growl. I started to assure her we were fine, when Jimmy interjected. "Aunt Jan, you know I'm always hungry."
"That you are, my boy. I never stop cooking around here. Between your uncle and Dax, I don't have time to rest between meals. Dinner's still a ways off from being done, but I've got some mango salsa and chips, if that's ok."
"That sounds amazing," Jimmy said and looked at me with a grin on his face. He was always taking care of me—and his stomach.
Jan pulled out the mango salsa and the chips and placed them in front of us. I tried not to inhale the food, but I hadn't realized how hungry I was.
"I've got some fresh banana bread here too."
"Banana bread sounds lovely," I said. "And it smells lovely too," I added as she lifted the foil.
When I was little—ok, younger is a better word since I was still rather small—visits to my Great-Aunt Jean's house had always meant banana bread. She'd let me peel and smash the overripe fruit while she mixed together the other ingredients. My brothers had never hung around the kitchen, heading instead out to the barn that Great-Uncle Louis had built for his Shetland ponies, small equines with large tempers. But when the bread was ready, everyone had gathered around the kitchen table and had eaten slice after slice, some slathering it with fresh butter, others choosing to drizzle honey laced with cinnamon.
And here I sat, many miles and years away from Great-Aunt Jean's kitchen, where banana bread still meant "welcome." Life could be strange sometimes, I thought. I caught Jimmy looking at me, and tingles started low in my belly. If this was strange, then I seemed to be adjusting to it just fine.
"You say you came looking for Dax?" Aunt Jan asked as she busied herself cutting the banana bread, placing a generous slice on a napkin in front of me.
"Yeah, I've got some things I'd like to talk to him about."
Jan raised her eyebrows at that but then seemed to shake it off, as if Jimmy being vague was par for the course.
"He doesn't live here anymore. He lives out back in one of those tiny houses."
"Wait. When did that happen? And since when can he afford something like that?" Jimmy asked, his brow furrowing in concern.
"Since he started working for that Stone fellow. Dax has been wanting his own place, but land being such a premium around here, this was all he could afford. It's actually pretty nice. Very trendy," she said with a wink.
Jimmy was dumbfounded, but an idea occurred to me. If I could get into Dax's tiny house, then maybe I'd find some clues as to what was going on between Derrick and him.
"Jan, can I use your bathroom, please?" I asked sweetly. Maybe a little too sweetly if the look on Jimmy's face was any indication.
"Of course, kaikamahine."
Jimmy snorted, but Jan snapped the dish towel in her hands at him, and he
practically choked on his banana bread. What was that about?
"It's down the hall, third door on the left."
"Yeah, third door on the left, little girl."
Ah, that must be what kaikamahine means. I could be upset, but Jan had said it with such affection I knew she'd meant it as a term of endearment, so I let it go. But if Jimmy thought he'd be able to give me yet another nickname, he had another think coming.
I walked toward the hallway, noticing the back door was right across from the front door. We'd gone to the left when we came in, as the house was split in two. Kitchen and living room on the left and the bedrooms and bathrooms on the right.
Stopping at the entrance to the hallway, I peered behind me, finding Jimmy inhaling the food in front of him and Jan at the stove stirring whatever heaven she had cooking. They chatted pleasantly, as families do. I had a small twinge of homesickness for my own family, but then again, maybe that was just indigestion.
No, it was definitely homesickness, and I vowed to call my mom and dad that night. It'd been a couple of weeks since I'd spoken to them. They would be happy to hear about the Classic tomorrow. My parents were supportive of my dreams, even if it did take me away from them. I kept hoping they'd visit, but they weren't really travelers.
I darted to the back door and carefully turned the knob to the French doors. Pushing one open quietly, I crept outside and immediately saw Dax's tiny house and a small fiberglass shed standing next to it. Dax's house looked like a little caboose, red with teal trim. It fit right in with his parent's home, as if it had been specially made. It was adorable. And tiny. How did Dax fit in that thing?
I walked quickly across the lawn, hoping that Dax hadn't locked his front door. I was in luck when I turned the knob, and it opened up into the coziest of spaces. Wood planks lined the walls, with a small countertop, sink, a tiny red microwave, and dishwasher. It was clear by the lack of dishes on the counter or in the sink, or the lack of a stove top, that Dax clearly got his cooking done by his mama on a regular basis.
There was a couch built into the side of the caboose, a red cushion lying on top. A TV large enough to span the entire back wall of the house was the focal point. A stove was clearly not on Dax's list of priorities, but a TV most certainly was.
A ladder stood to the side that led up to a loft, where I assumed Dax slept. Again, I had a hard time thinking of the behemoth of a man living in this teeny-tiny space. But I guess it beat living with your mother and father.
I looked around, wondering where to start searching for something. Anything. But not having a clear idea of what I was looking for, it was hard to know where to start. I looked in the cabinets for any packages wrapped up in brown paper like I'd seen Derrick hand to Dax in the photos. Then I crawled up the ladder to look around his bed, but there was no way to search that without taking a chance of being caught. Resigned to failure, I climbed back down the ladder and let myself out. That was when I noticed the fiberglass shed again.
What did Patti say? Something about the merchandise and the boards. Maybe whatever it was that I was searching for was in that shed.
I looked around to make sure I was still alone. Not seeing anyone, I dashed over to the shed and opened the doors. The smell of coconut oil and board wax flooded out of the shed. There were rows and rows of boards. But they were all plain ones, cheaply made. Nothing like the boards I'd seen Dax use the two times I'd seen him on the beach.
So if he didn't keep his fancy boards here at his home, where would he keep them? At the beach in lockers there? That seemed kind of risky though. What if someone broke in and stole them? Did the Stones have sheds at their place? But what did the boards have to do with Kailani's and Noe's deaths?
I wasn't sure, but for some reason I felt like I needed to find the fancy Ecoboard surfboards that Dax had been using of late. They had to be part of the puzzle I was trying to put together.
I stepped back, closing the doors, and bumped right into something hard. With a yelp, I spun around and looked up into the angry face of Dax Toki.
"Um, hi?" I said, the question in my voice unintentional.
Dax crossed his arms across his chest. "What are you doing out here?"
"Looking at your tiny house, of course."
"This isn't my house. That's my house," he said, pointing to the little red caboose.
"Oh, well that makes sense. This one didn't seem that homey."
"I'm not buying it. Why are you out here snooping around?"
I decided to play the defensive card. "I'm not snooping," I said, maybe a little louder than I'd planned to.
"It sure looks like it to me," Dax said, his voice rising as well.
"What were you doing in the women's locker room today? And why did you vandalize my locker?"
Dax's eyes shifted, but it seemed he was going to play dumb too. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I could have you arrested for trespassing, you know!" he shouted.
"What's going on out here?" Jimmy said from behind Dax.
I hadn't noticed that he'd come outside.
I finger waved around Dax's enormous body. It seemed I was doing a lot of that lately. Jimmy's gaze narrowed at me, and I could tell he was trying to keep his patience.
"Your girlfriend here"—Dax sneered at the word girlfriend—"was snooping around my house and shed. You want to tell me why?"
"You want to tell us why you wrote that message on Autumn's locker today?"
"I didn't—"
"Cut the crap, Dax. I have it on the security videos."
I wasn't sure if that was true. I knew he wouldn't have cameras on the inside of the locker room since that violated all kinds of privacy laws, but I guessed it was plausible that he had caught him coming out of the locker room.
Dax visibly sagged in defeat. "Fine. I was just trying to scare her. Make her stop asking questions."
"What do you mean 'scare her'? Why would you want to scare her?" Jimmy asked.
"Because. She doesn't know what she's messing with!" he shouted.
"The she in question is standing right here. I'd appreciate it if you boys would quit talking about me as if I'm not here."
Dax turned his dark gaze on me. "Look, you seem like a nice girl. I don't want you to get hurt. So I wrote that message to get you to quit asking so many questions."
"If the Stones are so bad, why do you work for them?" I asked, confused by his behavior.
"It's complicated."
"Did you send those pictures to my house and try to run me off the road too?" My anger was rising as I remembered the fear of looking at my face X'ed out as well as almost being roadkill last night.
"What? No. I don't know what you're talking about. You were run off the road?"
"Someone hit Autumn with their car last night. If she'd gone off the road any further, she could have been killed. As it was, her car did a 360-degree turn and lost its momentum. She's lucky to get out of it unharmed."
"I would never do that. I'd never hurt someone. And I didn't send you any pictures either. I just wanted you to stop snooping around, or you're going to get hurt. And I don't want anyone else dying."
Dax's face fell, and he seemed so genuine. Then the look of anger on his face last night when I'd caught him fighting with Derrick came to mind, and I was hesitant to believe him. What else could he say? Yes, I killed two people and was warning you so you'd stop asking questions and getting closer to my secret and exposing me?
Ok, maybe he wouldn't say all that. That was a pretty lengthy sentence. But something to that extent.
"Kids? You want some more banana bread? Oh, Dax, honey. I didn't see you. When did you get home?"
We all looked at each other, doubt warring with tension. Finally, Jimmy looked up and smiled at his aunt. "We were just about to leave, Aunt Jan. Thank you so much for the snack."
"You need to stay out of this, Autumn. You both do." With those parting words, Dax sauntered into his house and closed the door.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I sat in the passenger seat of Jimmy's POS car, my legs bouncing up and down as I tried to make sense of what I knew. I needed to regroup. Make a list of what information I'd gathered. But since I didn't have any paper on hand, I decided to talk about it instead.
Just as I was about to open my mouth and say something, I felt the warmth of Jimmy's hand on my leg. "Stop. You'll break my car."
I looked up at him and saw the teasing glint in his eye. I took a deep breath. "Let's talk about what we know."
He sighed, and I knew he wished I would just let it go, but I couldn't. Not only for my beloved camera, but because at this point it had become personal.
"Dax and Derrick are doing something illegal, or shady. That we can be sure of. All the covert conversations and passing of packages. That has to mean something, right?"
"That's all speculation, Autumn."
"Well, that's all I have right now, Jimmy. Of course I'm speculating!"
Exasperated, I ticked off another fact. "Derrick Stone threatened to kill Dax last night in the parking lot. He might have just been mad, but a death threat is a death threat all the same."
Jimmy just nodded, so I continued. "Patti Stone said something about merchandise and surfboards and that if she and Derrick got caught, they'd go down with them. Whatever that means."
"Definitely sounds ominous. But she does work for a surfboard company, and she's also known for idle threats."
"True. But Patti and Kailani had argued the night of the party, and Patti tried to get Kailani fired. What if when she called, Juls said no, so Patti took matters into her own hands?"
"It's possible, I guess. But then why did she kill Noe?"
"A crime of passion? But then Phil told Derrick at the crime scene yesterday morning that it was all his fault and that he killed Kailani. Could they all be in it together?"
"I think we're missing something. I just don't know what it is," Jimmy said.
"I agree, but I plan to figure it out."
Sighing loudly (Jimmy seemed to be having a problem with that lately), Jimmy placed his hand on my knee. "Just be careful. What do you want to do?"
Photo Finished Page 14
