Paradise Crime Mysteries

by Toby Neal

  They got into his old Bronco. In the enclosed space, the smell coming off him was even stronger, a potent combination of alcohol, sweat, and the sweetish tang of vomit.

  “You were drinking,” she said.

  “That obvious?” His voice was low and harsh. “What a detective you are.”

  “Let’s just get home. Get showers. Get something to eat. Then we can talk.”

  He kept his eyes on the road until he got to the station. She got out of the truck and into her own vehicle, and followed him for the dark drive home along the winding coast. She used the time to think through what to say, what to do.

  Keiki bellowed a greeting as the automatic gate rolled back. Lei remembered Conan, with his wide chest and sparkling, intelligent eyes. Conan would wake her beloved old girl up from her lethargy. Lei had a good feeling about that dog, and the thought of him felt like something to look forward to.

  All the lights were on in the new house. The harsh cement block was softened by golden light from the bulbs. Getting out, pulling her backpack behind her, Lei could see most of the interior doors were hung.

  “Michael, you were working on the house,” she exclaimed, feeling her anger recede.

  “Yeah. We sleep in it tonight,” he said, slamming his door. “It’s time your dad had his space back.”

  Wayne was standing behind the screen door of the cottage, Kiet on his hip.

  “Mama and Daddy are home,” he told the baby, who reached, squawking with excitement, for Lei. She hurried up the wooden steps to take him in her arms.

  Lei buried her face in the baby’s fragrant neck, inhaling his unique perfume of milk, powder, and the sweetness of baby skin. He laughed and grabbed her hair, filling his hands with the curly mass. She sank into the Adirondack chair on the deck and wallowed in the child in her arms, lifting his shirt to blow on his tummy, her whole being lighting up with joy at the feel of him in her arms.

  Dimly she heard Stevens and Wayne talking, and Keiki crowded against her legs, thrusting her massive head into Lei’s armpit and snorting happily.

  God, it is good to be home. She never wanted to leave her baby again. Ever.

  She might not be over losing the little life that had been with her so briefly, but Kiet was more than enough to fill her arms and her heart for now.

  Wayne had dinner, a rich homemade mac and cheese casserole, still warm for them in the oven. They ate, filling her father in on the situation with the dead woman found in the canal.

  Wayne’s brows drew together as Stevens concluded the story. His rugged face, deeply seamed, was worried. He pushed his salt-and-pepper curls back, his dark eyes troubled. “Please tell me it’s not the shroud killer again.”

  “We don’t know.” Stevens’s voice had a rough, muffled quality to it, and Lei realized that he was avoiding looking at her. He must still be feeling bad for his drinking binge. “I hope it is just a weird random thing, but I don’t think we should proceed as if it is. Mom traded clothes with some blonde woman and then she happened to fall into the canal? It’s hard to imagine that, when we’ve had this many deaths around us.”

  “I am going to make some calls after I shower,” Lei said. She ate rapidly, leaving Kiet to be fed by Stevens, and they were still at the table when she got up and went to the shower.

  It felt heavenly to rinse away the nervous sweat of the exhausting day, let it flow down her body to swirl around her feet and disappear into the drain.

  We are going to sleep in the new house tonight.

  A sense of anticipation lifted her. “We need some alone time,” she muttered, soaping briskly. Shortly after, wrapped in a terry cloth robe, she busied herself cleaning up Kiet and taking him out of his high chair, sitting with him for his bedtime bottle and putting him down in his crib while Stevens took his shower.

  Underneath all that, she simmered with desire to be with Stevens. Alone. In their new home, joined together. So he’d had a drinking binge—she loved him anyway and wanted to show it, support him in the situation with his mom.

  He needed her. And truth be known, she needed him just as much.

  Wayne washed up, murmuring in a low voice to one of the addicts he sponsored on the phone, and Lei changed into her familiar old boxers and tank top and wrapped herself in her robe. She picked up her pillow as Stevens came to the door, a towel wrapped around his narrow hips. She took a moment to enjoy the sight of him, a smile tugging up one side of her mouth as her gaze roamed.

  He finally met her eyes, and she saw a hunger that matched hers—and relief, too, that she wasn’t going to berate him.

  “Let’s go get set up in the new house, Michael. Do we need bedding?” Lei asked.

  “No. I moved the air mattress and washed the bedding from the tent in there. It’s ready to go.”

  Lei went out with her pillow and hugged her father. “Okay to leave Kiet in here with you tonight?”

  “Sure. He’s a good sleeper. I’ll yell if I need you.” Wayne turned to her, ruffling her curls. “Glad you’re home, Sweets.”

  “Not as glad as I am to be home,” she said.

  Wearing their robes, she and Stevens walked down the steps and across the lawn to the new house. Keiki followed, her ears swiveling and dark eyes worried at this new development.

  “She doesn’t know who to keep an eye on now,” Stevens said. “She liked having all of us in one spot.”

  “On the plus side, the house is as fireproof as they come,” Lei said. “And I think we’ll all sleep better at night for that.”

  “Could sure use a break from all the psychos in our lives,” Stevens said, pushing a hand through his hair.

  “This is already a break, for me,” Lei said softly. Stevens had brought in the carpet and air mattress from the tent, even strung the tiny battery-operated Christmas lights Lei’d originally decorated the tent with around the harsh, unfinished walls of the room. Lei walked around the large, square space, trailing her fingers along the unfinished cement.

  “It feels good to me,” she whispered. “Like a fortress. Like a castle. Our castle.”

  “And you’re my queen.” Stevens drew her into his arms. He so seldom said crazy romantic things like that. Lei felt herself instantly melt, reaching up to pull his head down to hers. Wrapped close in his arms, Lei let go of the relentless tension of the investigation, the horror of the body discovery this afternoon, even the powerful and sometimes conflicting feelings she still carried about being a mother.

  All of it rolled away and disappeared, leaving her in this intensely sensual moment, held in the arms of the man she loved.

  He slid his hands into the opening of the bathrobe, removing it from her body, gently but confidently undressing her even as their hungry mouths never left each other. The slow-burning flame that never left them heated up and consumed every thought and feeling, distilling it to pure, exquisite sensation that fed more than their bodily hunger.

  Stevens adjusted Lei’s head on his shoulder, pushing the thickets of her curling hair away from his face even as he felt the urge to bury his face in those nut-brown curls, inhaling the smell of her almond shampoo.

  She was naked against him, every inch of her slender frame touching him, warming him deeper than mere flesh. The longer they were married, the more he realized he was never going to slake his thirst for her. He wondered if he’d ever be able to resist a look from her smoldering brown eyes, a look that told him she’d be climbing him later like a vine up a tree.

  He didn’t think so. They’d be old and crabbed and he’d still be hers for the taking.

  He smoothed the chaotic hair back off her brow, looking down at the fans of her closed eyelashes, his gaze traveling down her smooth, cool body wrapped around his, lying alongside him in that space where she fit so well.

  He was glad to have this time. Alone together, in the stark shell of their new house, before the demands of the day began—beginning with their son waking up, which would happen in the next hour or so.

  Dawn’s
glow pushed the night back and washed out the stars as he made her his again. He needed every moment they had together, because they lived in the long shadow of death, and walked in it every day so others didn’t have to.

  They showered in the rough enclosure in the bathroom, which at least had running water, even if it was cold. She laughed, teasing him with the slippery bar of soap he’d remembered to bring over.

  “Could this water be any colder?”

  “Only if it wasn’t Hawaii,” he said. “Do you like the new bedroom?”

  “I like being with you, alone. Wherever we are,” she said, and put her mouth on that place she’d just soaped and rinsed.

  They were getting dressed when they heard Kiet fussing over at Wayne’s house.

  “Hang up those towels, will you? Let’s bring his crib over tonight. I want us all together,” Lei said. She hurried over to the cottage.

  Stevens followed more slowly, making a mental list of all the work that still needed doing on the house. It seemed like such a never-ending project, but really they only needed the plasterers, the painting, and finish work done. It wasn’t worth setting anything more up inside. The plasterers were due in a couple of days and the end was in sight.

  Stevens thought of all Lei hadn’t confronted him with last night. She’d only mentioned his drinking once, though she’d smelled it on him at the scene with the body. He knew and he’d recognized by the way she wrinkled her nose how she hated it.

  He loved her for letting it go without further comment.

  By the time he finished the tidying and hanging the bathroom door for their coming night in the new house, Lei was already dressed with her weapon and badge on, feeding Kiet in his high chair.

  She looked up, a frown above her eyes. “I have to get going early. We’re close to breaking something on the Makoa Simmons case, I hope.”

  “Anything I should know?” He poured himself some coffee and angled a glance at her.

  “Yeah. Don’t engage with Eric Tadeo about this case. I know you’re sharing an office with him.”

  “Don’t tell me anything, then,” Stevens said.

  Wayne had slept in and he joined them. “What are you going to do about that dead woman wearing your mother’s clothes?” he asked Stevens.

  “I’m not sure yet. I plan to offer support to Fujimoto, but he’s the main man on the case. I need to let him take the lead. I thought, though, if he was agreeable, I’d go do some pavement pounding and see who might have seen the woman, seen where those clothes came from.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Wayne tossed Keiki a piece of toast from his plate. “I know a lot of people from the program who lived on the street, and I have a meeting today. I’ll see if anyone knows a blonde, blue-eyed street woman.”

  “I’ll see if I get time to go by and talk to the doc,” Lei said. “Now, bye to all my favorite men.” She started with a kiss on Kiet’s head, then Stevens, then her father. “I may not be home for dinner. Depends on what’s happening with the case.”

  She skipped down the steps and got in her truck, Keiki watching sadly from the top step.

  Stevens dressed in the bedroom, realizing his night with Lei had shucked off the last of his hangover and angst. In spite of his mom’s disappearance, he felt better than he had in days. As long as he and Lei had each other, they could survive anything.

  Now he had to go and find his mother. Dead or alive. She was his weakness, and the best way to deal with weaknesses was to keep them close.

  “Wayne.” He approached his father-in-law in the kitchen. “I’m sorry about the drinking the other day. Thanks for the water and aspirin. It won’t happen again.”

  Wayne gave him a long look from uncompromising eyes. “See that it doesn’t.” His father-in-law took the baby down from his high chair. “You have people who need you.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lei drove down the morning-shadowed, winding road. She turned on the radio and called Dispatch. After identifying herself, she asked, “Did you get any calls about that blonde woman Ellen Stevens?”

  “Sorry, Sergeant. Nothing tonight,” Dispatch said. “We have the BOLO and will alert you if she’s found.”

  “Roger that.” Lei hung up the radio and pressed down on the gas. She wanted today to be the day she brought in Makoa’s murderer, and to do that she needed to stir the pot, see what came to a boil.

  Getting a sudden idea, she phoned Pippa. The phone rang and rang, finally going to voice mail. Lei thought of the scene she’d left the girl with the night before: holding a positive pregnancy test, alone to tell her parents she was pregnant with a murdered man’s baby.

  She wouldn’t have wanted to talk to Lei, either.

  “Hi, Pippa. I hope it went okay talking to your parents last night. Listen, I have a huge favor to ask. I wouldn’t ask it if I didn’t think it might help flush out Makoa’s killer. Please call me back so I can talk with you about it.”

  In her cubicle at Kahului Station, Lei scrolled through her departmental e-mail while stirring a mug of inky coffee and trying to dissolve the chunks of creamer. She’d finally made some progress when Pono slid into his squeaky office chair beside her.

  “Glad that floater wasn’t your mother-in-law,” he said.

  “Me too. I think that would have pushed Jared and Michael right over the edge. They’ve already had so much heartbreak from her. I hope she turns up today. Anyway, I want to bust this case open. I think we should bring Oulaki and Tadeo in. Along with the girls. Mix it up, see what we can get to pop.”

  “I think heads are what’s going to pop if you throw those four in a room,” Pono said.

  “Or we could stir up something interesting. You know as well as I do that this case needs a confession since there’s so little forensic evidence. Let’s start with Eli Tadeo, since he’s here. His phone records show short calls to Shayla’s number; from the length of the calls, it looks like she wasn’t taking them, and unfortunately I don’t see anything on his cell or hers on the day Makoa was killed. But then eventually there’s a number appearing on his bill that could be a burner. What if Shayla got smart and was communicating with him, but with a burner?”

  “I’m not seeing Eli as the doer. When you meet him, you’ll understand. He might not be as squeaky-clean as Eric Tadeo, our recruiter, but it’s a stretch to imagine him having the sack to do Makoa the way it was done.”

  “Indulge me,” Lei said. “I still like him as the jealous boyfriend with a revenge-profit-love motive.”

  “It’s your hassle,” Pono replied. “Here’s his number. I’m getting more coffee.” He pushed the case file over to Lei.

  Lei used the station phone to call Eli’s cell, knowing Maui Police Department would show up in his caller ID. Sure enough, no one answered.

  “Mr. Tadeo, this is Sergeant Lei Texeira. Please call me back about an interview regarding a police matter. This is not a request. If you do not comply, we will issue a bench warrant for your arrest.” A bluff, but one she didn’t think he’d be willing to risk.

  She hung up, pushed back her chair, did a few spins to discharge energy, and picked up the phone as it rang. “Sergeant Texeira.”

  “This is Pippa, calling you back.” The young woman’s voice was hesitant. “You wanted to ask a favor?”

  “Oh, Pippa. How did it go with your parents?”

  “They didn’t know I was with Makoa at all. That’s been a tricky thing. So I had to tell them that and that I was pregnant. They’re pretty upset.”

  “I’m sorry to have left you there, but it seemed like a private family matter.”

  “It wouldn’t have helped to have you there, that’s for sure.”

  “Well, I’m sorry you had to go through that, but hopefully they’ll come around. That kind of brings me to what I have to ask you. How do you feel about Bryan Oulaki?”

  A long pause. Finally, “I like him. He’s been a good friend to me.”

  “Do you think he might like you…more than a fri
end?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to think about that.”

  Lei could feel Pippa withdrawing, so she pushed ahead. “Never mind. But could you ask him to come over here? To Maui? Tell him you need his support right now.”

  Another pause. “Do you suspect him?” Pippa’s voice shook.

  “I can’t talk about that right now,” Lei temporized. “But I need to know if he would come if you asked him to, and when he’s here, I need to talk to him.”

  Another long pause. “Okay. I’ll do it. If he had anything to do with Makoa’s death, I want him dealt with, no matter what,” Pippa said, an unfamiliar hardness in her tone. “I’ll let you know.”

  The young woman hung up.

  Lei lifted the phone away from her ear thoughtfully, then set it down. It would indeed be interesting to see if Oulaki got on a plane and came all the way to another island when Pippa called for him. Pono reappeared with another mug of coffee for her.

  “Thanks, partner,” she said, clinking her mug to his. “Operation pot-stirring has commenced.”

  He rolled his eyes with an exaggerated grimace. The phone rang, and Lei picked up.

  “This is Eli Tadeo. I’m responding to a threatening phone message from Maui Police Department.”

  “This is Sergeant Texeira.” Lei put the call on speakerphone so Pono could hear the conversation. “I simply informed you that returning my call was not optional. Thank you for complying. Please come into the station. We’d like to ask you a few questions regarding an important matter.”

  “I talked to that big moke cop yesterday.” Eli’s voice was sullen. Pono frowned at the derogatory word.

  “I know, and I thank you for the alibi you provided. However, we have some additional questions.” Lei set up a time for the young man to come in. She continued to arrange the rest of the day, including a meeting to brief the captain at the end.

  “We have just enough time to run over to the morgue for a look at that floater Jane Doe from the canal,” she said. “Coming?”