4 Maui Macadamia Madness (21 page)

A glance at Ethan
showed him engrossed in watching the guys dance and twirl fire while wearing
grass skirts. To me, that was an accident waiting to happen. Exciting, yes, but
dangerous all the same, and not something I would ever try.

I couldn’t wait to
get somewhere private and read the note. With it crackling against my skin
every time I moved, it was bound to distract me all night.

“Why are you so
fidgety?” Ethan put a hand on my thigh.

“I need to use the
restroom.”

He smiled. “You’re
like a little kid. Hurry up.”

I ducked into the
restroom of the main building and pulled the note out of my bra. Written in red
ink were the words ‘Meet me at five a.m. by the old sofa on the beach. Bring
your aunt.’

I knew Leroy must
have written the note. He was the only one who thought we were interested in a
timeshare and wanted a meeting. Leaning back against the toilet tank, I bumped
my head on the wall, twice.

How was I going to
get to the beach at that hour of the morning
and
bring Aunt Eunice?

Chapter
Twenty-Four

At four thirty the next morning, after telling Ethan that Aunt Eunice
needed to talk to me about something private and urgent, I knocked on my aunt
and uncle’s cottage door.

A sleepy, very
grumpy, Uncle Roy answered. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Yes. I also know
you and Aunt Eunice never sleep later than four thirty and are getting ready to
have your morning coffee.” I tried to peer around him. “Can I talk to her?
Privately, please.”

“What’s wrong? I’ve
never known you to get up this early.” He stepped back to let me enter.

“I do.
Sometimes.
Besides, this is important girl stuff.” And time
was ticking.

“Eunice, your niece
is here.”

I grinned. Uncle Roy
only called me
her
niece when he was perturbed with me, which
fortunately wasn’t very often. This time his annoyance was rather cute.

“Summer?”
Dressed in sweats, and with her hair in
disarray, Aunt Eunice stood up from the table.

“Can I talk to you
outside, please?” A glance at my watch confirmed we were running out of time.
Only fifteen minutes remained for us to make our appointment.

“Okay, but I’m
bringing my coffee.” She grabbed her mug and followed me out. “I don’t know
what you’re thinking, dragging me out this early.”

“We’ll talk as we
walk. Quickly, though.” I headed off at a fast pace to the shoreline as
flip-flops in sand allowed.

“Slow down. I’m
spilling my coffee.”

I stopped to face my
aunt. “I got a note last night at the luau telling me to have us meet someone
at the beach at five a.m. It’s almost that time now.”

“Who?”
Her eyes widened enough I could see the
moon’s reflection in her pupils.

I shrugged. “They
didn’t sign it, but Malia is the one who slipped it to me.”

“Did you tell anyone
we were coming out here?” She gasped. “You didn’t! Oh, mercy, we’ll be murdered
on a tropical beach and washed out to sea.”

“Quit exaggerating.
You know they would have stopped us.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “We’re
so close to solving this. We can’t stop now.”

“Oh, Roy is going to
kill me.” She set her mug on a nearby table, and we quickened our pace to the
designated spot with two minutes to spare.

I eyed the filthy
sofa and decided to stand. Besides, if our meeting turned dangerous, I needed
to be able to run and push Aunt Eunice ahead of me.

A shadowy form moved
toward us from the direction of the hotel. I squinted.

Yep, the same figure
that walked the beach, smoking, a few nights ago. Our culprit was definitely
Leroy. The young man must be smarter than we all thought, to continue with such
a large scheme after Jamison’s death.
A scheme to take
people’s money and kill them.
My mouth dried up. Leroy killed Jamison,
and I was stupid enough to set up a meeting with him.

“All of a sudden,
I’m having second thoughts about being here.” I clutched my aunt’s hand.

“Too
late now.”
She plastered
a smile to her face, teeth gleaming. “Hello, Leroy. I had no idea you were
behind this timeshare deal.”

“I’m not.” He shoved
his hands in the pockets of his baggie board shorts. “Jamison was. I’m just
continuing what he started. Why should I let a good, possibly profitable, deal
go to waste?” He lifted his head. “You want in or not?”

“Wait a minute.” I
held up a hand. “We need a little more information. Like how much does it
cost?”

“Ten
thousand dollars.”

Mercy! With all the
original guests added together, they would have made an easy $100,000. I bit my
lower lip. “That’s a lot of money, and if this was on the up and up, why have
us meet you under cover of darkness?”

“My folks don’t know
about it. I’m trying to save the family
farm,
I think
is what you hillbillies say.” He squared his shoulders. “You want in or not? I
don’t have all day, and I’m starting to think you’re out here fishing for
information.”

“We are fishing for
information.” Aunt Eunice moved closer to him and sniffed. “Have you been
smoking pot? Why else do you think we’re here?” She planted her fists on her
hips. “I don’t intend to hand over that kind of money without a little more
knowledge. As it is, I don’t like your attitude and will most likely not
purchase your timeshare.
Hmmph
.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me with her, back toward
the cottage.

“What are you
doing?” My aunt had gone crazy. I glanced back over my shoulder to see Leroy
staring. By now, the sun had risen enough that I could see he was anything but
happy.

“You wanted a trap
laid, it’s laid. If Leroy is the killer, he’ll be coming after us.”

“Gee, thanks.” My
stomach dropped three feet.

“Don’t go anywhere
alone and don’t eat anything you don’t see the
Wahines
eat, unless you’ve fixed it yourself.”

“You’ve gone crazy.”
Who was this person and where was my aunt? “I might get us into tough
situations, but I don’t stand up and invite the killer to take a shot.”

“You know how I get
without the proper amount of caffeine.” She whirled. “Do you honestly believe
that wimp of a young man killed anyone? He could barely look us in the eye.”

“He’s the only
suspect we’ve got.” She was right. I didn’t feel as if Leroy was a killer. A
swindler maybe, but I didn’t think he had the guts to poison anyone or throw an
electrical appliance into an old woman’s bath. “I need to look at the photos
again. Maybe something will jump out at me.”

“Better be fast. I
heard there’s a tropical storm brewing. I’ve seen enough movies to know that a
storm is a perfect backdrop for murder.”

I sighed. My aunt
definitely had a flair for the dramatic. After making sure she arrived safely
at her cottage, I almost ran to mine. Seeing as to how we’d possibly upset
Leroy, I wasn’t taking any chances being outside before the sun was fully
risen.

When I entered our
rented hut, Ethan sat at the small dinette table, nursing a mug of coffee.
“Everything okay with Eunice?”

“Yeah.”
I moved toward the bathroom.

“Well?” Ethan
followed me. “Aren’t you going to tell me what was so important you had to
leave at four thirty?”

I closed my eyes,
keeping my back to him. I couldn’t lie any longer. “Last night, Malia handed me
a note telling me and Aunt Eunice to meet Leroy by the old sofa on the beach.”
I took a deep breath and turned. Ethan’s eyes smoldered. “So, I dragged her out
with me. His scam costs $10,000, and we determined he might be keeping the scam
going, but that he isn’t the killer.”

“How did you
determine that?” The cold tone of his voice chilled me.

“He’s a wimp that
won’t meet your eyes when talking to you.” I squeezed past him to plop on the
sofa. “Aunt Eunice came to the same conclusion. Leroy doesn’t seem the
murdering type.”

“You’ve been wrong
before.”

Many times,
unfortunately. “But, we’ve laid a trap we’re hoping the real killer will fall
into.”

Ethan ran his hands
through his hair. “I’m not going to get angry. I’ve told you I would help you
solve this, but I can’t if you sneak off without me.”

“The note wasn’t to
you.”

“That’s not the
right answer.” He fell onto the sofa next to me. “You didn’t tell me about it
because you knew I wouldn’t allow you to go.”

“True. I’m sorry. If
it’s any consolation, Aunt Eunice didn’t tell Uncle Roy, either.”

“Because she chose
not to or because she didn’t know about your scheme ahead of time?”

I think he already
knew the answer to that question. Ethan put an arm around me and pulled me
close to his side. “Do you think you can stay out of trouble for the next three
days?”

“I doubt it.” My
response was given without humor, but Ethan seemed to find it full of jokes.

His shout of
laughter almost burst my eardrum.

“I’m being serious.
Trouble follows me wherever I go.” Sometimes I looked for it, but that was
neither here nor there. This particular mystery I did
not
go looking
for out of curiosity, a misguided sense of righteousness, or the need to right
a wrong. I literally happened to be in the wrong place.

“I wonder if I could
find a bumper sticker that says Trouble is
Coming
?”
Ethan laughed harder when I slugged him in his bicep.

A shadow passed the
window. I started to jump up to answer the door, but Ethan pulled me back,
saying he’d greet our visitor. Okay. Instead, I sat on the edge of the sofa and
craned my neck.

Before the person
could knock, Ethan had the door open, allowing Camilla to enter. The girl’s
stony face swiveled my way. Didn’t she ever smile? I tried to remember if I’d
ever seen her do anything but the pasted-on grin required by employees. Nope.
Nothing.

“There is a tropical
storm coming.” Instead of beautifully lilted words, she spoke like an
automaton. “They are not common for this time of year, but my father insists
all guests be either in their cabins or in the main building.” She gave a
single nod.
“For their own safety, of course.”

Not once had her
gaze left mine. Well, she wasn’t the first person not to like me for reasons I
couldn’t understand. Most likely, once we left the island, I’d never see her or
any member of her family again.

I slouched back. If
we were to stay inside, how would Leroy be able to make his next move? Or,
wait! What if staying in our cabin was the worst-case scenario and would fit in
with the killer’s plans?

“Thank you.” Ethan
let Camilla out, taking the chill from the room and returning the temperature
to tropical. “I can see the wheels spinning in your head.”

“They are.” I
skooched
against the sofa arm and hugged a throw pillow. “I
know that the killer couldn’t make a storm happen on purpose, but what if he
takes advantage of the situation? We’re all separated into our individual
places. I think we should gather at the larger cabin, or in the main building.
Safety in numbers, and all that.”

“Hard to take you
seriously when you left without those so-called numbers this morning.” Ethan
pulled the window shutters closed. “Wind is starting to pick up.”

“Can’t
be any worse than a tornado.”
My gut clenched.
“Except we have shelters back home.
Where do we go to get away from a tropical storm?”

“Camilla said it
wasn’t a bad one, just some wind and heavy rain. We’ll be fine.” Ethan grabbed
his room key. “But just in case, I like your idea about us staying with the
rest of your family.”

One peek out the
shutters told me we’d be soaked by the time we arrived. An umbrella was propped
in the corner, but with the wind velocity, it’d be next to useless. I sighed.
No help for it, we’d have to get wet. I hoped my family had plenty of towels.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The wind buffeted us, stinging us with rain. Ethan kept a tight grip on
my
hand,
most likely fearful I’d blow away. If this
was a small tropical storm, I hated to see what a bad one was.

Aunt Eunice must
have been watching from the window because she had the door open the moment we
reached for the handle. “Heavens, y’all are soaked." She handed us each a
towel.

“I’m guessing you
guys were told to stay inside, too?” I dried my arms then wrapped the towel
around my head.

“The whole island’s
most likely battened down,” Uncle Roy said. “Only wrench in the plan is staying
here instead of investigating this mystery further.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yeah, your Aunt Eunice told me all about it, and I am not happy.”