Photo Finished

by Dane McCaslin

  Patti looked slightly miffed, as if the thought of someone announcing they needed to use the facilities was unladylike. Sighing she said, "I'll get Gerta to show you—"

  "I'm sure that's not necessary. Is it down that hall?" I asked, pointing to the hallway that I assumed led to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

  "Yes. Seventh door on the right."

  Good Lord, how many rooms were in this place?

  I opened my MacBook and handed it to Summer. "Will you show Mrs. Stone the pictures in the luau file, please?"

  Summer gave me the stink eye but nodded her agreement, and I hurried down the hallway, trying to peer into the open rooms as I passed. I peeked inside a room to my right, finding what looked like someone's office. When a noise sounded down the hall, I quickly ducked inside, gently pushing the door without closing it all the way.

  I sank back against the wall, trying to get ahold of myself. What did this mean? The Stones clearly had access to a pufferfish, one that was no longer with them. Could Patti be lying? Did she filet her own pet and feed it to Noe in order to kill him? She looked genuine when she'd talked about her fish so affectionately, but maybe she saw it as a necessary sacrifice. Or did Derrick kill his wife's pet?

  I wasn't sure, but now I had more proof that the Stones had something to do with the murder of three people. The fish, the arguments, the threats, the drugs, the love letter.

  I opened my eyes, taking in the nauseatingly pink walls and hot pink accents all around the room. I assumed this must be Patti's office. Crossing to the desk, I opened several drawers, finding one brimming with chocolate, what looked like a hot pink vibrator (ew!), and an obscene number of paper clips. What would Patti need with all those paper clips? And don't get me started on the vibrator!

  I rummaged through the papers on top, but I didn't find anything concerning, just a bunch of receipts for shoes. The woman sure liked her stilettos.

  Voices sounded in the hall, and I rushed to the door to peer out the crack I'd left open.

  "Nothing can go wrong tomorrow. Nothing!" a male's voice said in hushed tones.

  "I promise you, everything is taken care of."

  That voice I recognized—Dax Toki. I cracked open the door just a little bit more to see if I could catch a glimpse of whoever else was out there. As soon as I did, the two figures stopped right in front of the office door. Derrick Stone was with Dax.

  "The drop will happen right after you surf, so don't go flirting with girls and lose track of time. The place will be crawling with police. Make sure your board is secure as well as the other guys'. With Phil and Noe gone, we're shorthanded."

  Derrick Stone spoke of Phil and Noe as if they just had the day off.

  "I know what I'm doing," Dax replied, his voice growing angry.

  "The police have been nosing around here asking questions. We can't afford for anyone to intercept this drop. It means more money than you've ever seen. International exposure."

  "I know. I've got it under control."

  "Like you had Kailani under control? She overheard us talking, Dax, and she had pictures of us together. In a compromising situation. I can't afford those kinds of mistakes."

  The men started walking again, and I waited till they ducked inside another room. As soon as they were out of sight, I opened the door and rushed toward the bathroom and right into a vase of flowers sitting on a table along the wall.

  The vase fell crashing to the floor, water and flowers bursting out and covering the hall floor.

  Derrick and Dax rushed out of the room they'd just entered.

  "What are you doing here?" Derrick snarled, and Dax didn't look too happy to see me either.

  "I'm so sorry. I was trying to find the bathroom and my hip hit the vase?" I said in more of a question than a statement. I wasn't even reassuring to myself.

  "But why are you in my home?" he clarified.

  Annie came out of the room across from the office I had been in, and I froze. I'd had no idea she was in there. As I peered inside the room she was standing in front of, I saw that her desk was in full view of the door. Had it been closed when I ducked inside Patti's office? Had she seen me go in? Would she tell Derrick about her suspicions?

  "Ms. Season was showing the proofs to Mrs. Stone from the luau," Annie said in a tight voice.

  "Um, yes. And I was looking for the bathroom and must have miscounted the doors," I said, realizing too late that room three was nowhere near room seven. Annie narrowed her eyes, clearly not buying my BS.

  "It's down there," Derrick grunted, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. "Annie get someone to clean up this mess."

  Why Patti hadn't said the last door on the right, I had no idea. Maybe she liked people knowing how big her house was?

  "Yes, of course. Thank you."

  I speed walked to the bathroom (I'd put Juls to shame with my skills) and closed the door behind me, trying to catch my breath. I took the appropriate amount of time that I would usually take if I ducked in there for true reasons and then quietly opened the door.

  Seeing the hallway empty, I crept down it, looking into rooms as I went. When I got to the room Derrick and Dax had entered, the door was closed. I briefly considered putting my ear to it but decided not to chance it. I'd already been caught once.

  When I turned back around, I ran right into Annie.

  "Umf! Oh, sorry."

  "You should be more careful, Autumn. It's not polite to be snooping in other people's houses." She smiled then and returned to her office.

  She'd seen me go into Patti's office. I was so screwed. I knew she'd tell Patti or Derrick. If that was the case and they were the killers, I was in deep doo-doo.

  Hurriedly, I ran into the living room, sliding to a stop in my slick flip-flops. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Stone. I um, I have to go unexpectedly. I'll email you the file since you've been able to see most of them on my computer, and you can just tell me which ones you'd like. Summer?"

  Summer jumped off the couch at the crazy look I had in my eyes.

  "Oh, well. Ok. I hope everything is ok," Patti said.

  I was a little surprised at how accommodating she was being. Maybe murder did that to a person. Maybe she had a high after killing Phil this morning and was still feeling the effects.

  Whatever the reason, I wasn't going to wait around to figure it out!

  Grabbing Summer's hand, I walked as fast as I could drag her out to my car, turned the ignition over, and peeled rubber out of the driveway.

  As soon as we hit the road, Summer turned to me. "Want to tell me what that was about?"

  The reality of what I'd discovered and overheard hit me like a punch to the gut. The Stones had access to the murder weapons. And Derrick had known that Kailani had the photos of him and Dax and the drugs.

  "I think the Stones killed Noe, Kailani, and Phil."

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I dropped Summer off at the resort. It was late afternoon, and I swore this was the longest week of my life. I needed to call Detective Ray. Although he was going to crap a brick when he heard what I'd uncovered. I was imagining a whole bunch of yelling and name calling, and I wasn't really in the mood for it all. So I dialed Jimmy first. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn't pick up, which left me having to call Detective Ray myself.

  I dialed his number and blessedly got his voicemail. It wasn't that I was a coward. It was just that I didn't want to deal with the confrontation. I'd experienced more in the last several days than I had my entire existence, so cut a girl a break!

  I left a message for him to call me, said I had pertinent information about the case, and then hung up. Anxious about what I'd figured out and the shock starting to wear off, I decided a mai tai on the lanai (hey, that rhymed!) was in store for the evening. I had an early morning the next day, so I needed to relax and get my thoughts in order for my conversation with Jimmy or Detective Ray when they called back.

  I made my drink (I'd become an expert on perfecting the perfect blend of tangy and sweet) an
d settled into one of the chairs I'd bought when I moved in. The lanai was a perfect place to rest and relax, and I was grateful I'd found this place. Tom and Doris were excellent landlords, mostly because they were never at home, and I had free rein of the gorgeous backyard. It was a large plot of land surrounded by beautiful Hawaiian flowers and exotic bushes. I had no idea how to take care of it all, but the Berrys hired a landscape crew to come in and keep it in pristine condition, while I managed to water the few plants around the lanai.

  Trying to settle in and calm my still racing heart, I took a sip of my drink and closed my eyes. Breathing in a lungful of sweet tropical air, I blew it out and felt my pulse begin to calm.

  Rustling in the bushes perked my ears, and I opened my eyes and sat up to see if an animal was stalking me. I surveyed the surrounding area, but the thick foliage left me at a disadvantage. Something whizzed by my ear, followed by what sounded like the sharp bark of a gun. Another whizzing sound, and the wood siding next to my head exploded into pieces. With a scream, I jumped up and ran through the French doors that opened into my bedroom.

  The glass shattered when another bullet flew through, and I dropped to the floor, trying to lock the doors from the ground. Which was ridiculous since someone was shooting the windows out. If they wanted in, a lock wasn't going to keep them out. Giving up, I crawled to the other room to the tune of bullets hitting the walls and the shattering of glass. When I glanced back, the shards were raining down over the carpet.

  I grabbed my phone off my bed and hid behind it as I dialed Jimmy's number. Thank God he answered on the first ring.

  "Hey, Red, sorry about earlier. I—"

  "Someone's shooting at the house!"

  "What?" A new barrage of bullets hurled themselves into the glass of my back door, or at least what was left of it, lodging themselves into the opposite wall.

  "Someone's shooting at me!" I screamed.

  "Stay down. I'm almost to your house."

  I prayed that he was as close as he said he was. I crawled into the bathroom and locked the door. There were no windows in there, so I was safe from the bullets at least, but if the person decided to come inside, I was screwed.

  Trembling, I waited for an eternity, but it was probably more like 60 seconds before I heard the front door open and slam shut. Searching for a weapon, I grabbed the toilet plunger and held it up like a baseball bat.

  "Autumn! Where are you?" Jimmy's frantic voice called out.

  "In here," I said, relieved that Jimmy was there. I unlocked the door, and it crashed open. It was a testament to Jimmy's stalwart iron constitution that he simply gave me a single eyebrow raise when he saw I was prepared to take on the shooter with a toilet plunger.

  "Red?" he asked.

  "Shut up and tell me what to do!" I snapped. My patience was wearing thin.

  Jimmy rushed in, taking the plunger from my hands and wrapping me in his arms. I wanted to fall to pieces, but as far as I knew, there was a shooter still out there waiting to put bullets in my head.

  Jimmy pushed me back and rubbed his hands over my arms and person. "You're ok? Nothing's hurt?"

  I shook my head, distracted by how good his hands felt on my body.

  His hand reached up and swiped at my cheek. "You've got some blood here," he said.

  I looked to my right at the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, there was a bloody scratch just under my eye.

  "It doesn't hurt." But it went great with the bruise from the car accident. Nice.

  "You're in shock. It will probably hurt later. You may need stitches."

  I cringed. I hated needles. If I could help it, I wasn't getting stitches.

  Sirens sounded from a distance, and I was relieved that Jimmy must have called the police.

  "Stay here. I'm going to go see if the person's still here. The sirens may have scared him off."

  Jimmy pulled a gun out of his waistband. I always forgot that he carried a gun. It wasn't like he had many opportunities to use it.

  I decided the best place for me was the bathroom, just in case the gunman decided to use my apartment as target practice again.

  I waited for eons of time. Ok, it was probably just a few minutes, but in those few minutes I had all kinds of horrible visions in my head. Jimmy lying in a pool of blood, a bullet to his torso. Jimmy wrestling a gun out of a giant bad man's hand. Jimmy's lifeless eyes as he stared into mine.

  A sob broke out, and I realized I was crying. And not the cute little tears you see the heroines in movies cry. These were loud, ugly, body-wracking sobs. All the pent-up emotions over this week came out of my eyes, my nose, and probably every other orifice on my face. I was cold and clammy yet sweating like I'd run twenty miles.

  When Jimmy returned, he found me curled up in a fetal position on my side, my bathroom rug saturated with my tears.

  "Shh. It's ok, Red. I'm here." Jimmy scooped me up in his arms and lifted me as if I weighed barely anything.

  "She's in here," Jimmy shouted to the EMS guys, who rushed in. "I'll take her out to the ambulance."

  Jimmy carried me and placed me in the back of the ambulance, pushing my hair back out of my eyes and looking at me with such tenderness it almost brought back the tears.

  "You ok?"

  I nodded. My throat was dry and raw from the sobbing, so words weren't necessary right then.

  The paramedics began their work on me, taking my blood pressure, shining a light into my eyes, and then trying to convince me to go to the ER.

  "I'm fine," I said, probably a million times.

  "Ma'am, we really think you should go with us," one of the technicians said.

  But since he called me ma'am, I decided I didn't have to do what he said.

  I shook my head resolutely. "Not going to happen."

  He sighed, then turned to his partner and said something under his breath. Finally, they placed a butterfly bandage on the cut under my eye and pronounced me as good as I was going to get without further treatment.

  I hopped out of the ambulance and went inside through my front door. My bedroom was a mess, and from where I stood, I could see the shattered glass of the back door. Tom and Doris were going to have a fit. Insurance covered shootings, right?

  I found Jimmy talking to Detective Ray, and determined to tell them what I'd discovered, I marched over.

  "I called you both earlier," I started.

  "Hello, Ms. Season. We really should stop meeting this way, don't you think?" The detective raised his eyebrows.

  "It's not exactly my idea of a good time, Detective." And ok, I should really dial back the witchy, but I'd just been shot at. "Anyway, I called you to let you know that I overheard something today while I was at the Stones' house."

  "Why were you at their house?" Jimmy asked, his tone not quite as gentle and tender as it had been earlier.

  "I'm a photographer, and I had proofs I needed to show to Mrs. Stone," I said defensively.

  "Proofs you could have emailed," Jimmy smarted back.

  "True, but excellent customer service is what makes the world go 'round," I said with a fake smile on my face.

  "Could you two cut the foreplay and please tell me what you found out?" Detective Ray interrupted.

  Momentarily speechless at his observation, I stood there with my mouth hanging open. I knew it was hanging open, because Jimmy closed it with his hand, all the while snickering like a teenage boy.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts and continued. "I overheard Derrick and Dax talking. They said something about a drop happening tomorrow at the Classic. Derrick said that Kailani had heard them talking about it, and they knew she had incriminating photos of them. He said that nothing could get in the way because there was a lot of money at stake."

  Detective Ray took notes then looked up at me as I waited for him to finish writing. "And?"

  "What do you mean and?" I sputtered. "Obviously they killed Kailani for overhearing their plans and taking those pictures. And that's not even the best part!"r />
  I realized I was getting a little loud, so I lowered my voice. "One of their pufferfish went missing earlier this week."

  I waited for the congratulations to come that I had single-handedly delivered the evidence to the police that would put the Stones away for life. When Detective Ray finished his notes, he looked up at me again. "Is that all, Ms. Season?"

  "Don't you see?" I was indignant now. "They have to be the murderers! They had access to the pufferfish poison and the drugs. Two of the murder weapons. And I don't know how they killed Phil yet, but I'm sure if you dig around, you'll figure out they had the means to kill him also!"

  "Ms. Season, everything you have here is circumstantial. We have to have more than hearsay to make an arrest. I appreciate your information, but please. Please. Stay out of my investigation. Did Derrick or Dax see you?"

  "Well they—"

  Jimmy groaned, and Detective Ray rolled his eyes.

  "You are not a detective, Ms. Season. Stay out of it!" he said firmly.

  "But they killed Noe, Kailani, and Phil!" I yelled.

  "Phil's death was just ruled a homicide a couple of hours ago. How did you know Phil was murdered?" he said, his gaze narrowing.

  "Well, I didn't know for sure. I just had a hunch…"

  "Now that I think of it, you've been present at every murder. That seems a little suspicious, don't you think?"

  I sputtered. Words wouldn't form. My mouth worked into an O like the little pufferfish following my finger. Surely he didn't think I killed these people?

  "I would never—" I started.

  "Relax, Ms. Season. You have no motive for killing anyone. But if you continue to stick your nose where it doesn't belong, I'll have no choice but to arrest you for obstruction."

  With those final words, Detective Ray turned and motioned for Jimmy to follow him. They spoke just outside the front door. The police finished up, and Jimmy returned, shutting the door behind him.