“It turned into the black rock on Shipwreck Beach,” someone broke in eagerly.
Lani rewarded her audience with a smile. “That’s right.”
“Read us another.” The group took up the cry, young voices high and enthusiastic.
“Well, I suppose we have time for one more. Who wants to hear the legend of Kanunu?”
A flurry of hands shot up. All except one, who’d caught sight of Donovan.
“Who’s that?” the little girl with sleek black hair and almond eyes inquired, pointing toward Donovan.
As she lifted her head, Lani’s gaze met Donovan’s steadily watchful one. Soft color bloomed in her cheeks. “I think,” she said, “that we’ve read enough for today.” The resultant complaints sounded like a Greek chorus of doomsayers, but one that Lani ignored.
“Nolina,” she instructed the girl who’d first taken note of Donovan, “would you please tell Mrs. Yukimura that I’m going to take a short break and will be back in a little while?”
“Are you Lani’s boyfriend?” the little girl asked, lingering behind the others to study Donovan with somber, unblinking eyes behind her round glasses.
Donovan smiled down at her. “I’m working on it.”
“Mr. Quinn is my brother’s best friend,” Lani said decisively. “He’s simply here for Christmas vacation. Now scoot. If you’re a good girl, maybe Mrs. Yukimura will let you date-scan the books.”
Apparently those were the magic words because the young girl took off like a shot, leaving Lani and Donovan alone.
“How was your breakfast with Taylor?” she asked.
“I ate Spam.”
“That’s no surprise. Given that it’s the island’s national meat product, thanks to all the GIs eating it during World War II. I was referring to what clues you came up with regarding Ford’s disappearance.”
“I’m still working on the clue thing. How long have you known Taylor Young?”
“We’ve been best friends since fourth grade. Why?”
“Do you know of any reason she’d lie about her boyfriend’s vanishing act?”
“Lie?” She shook her head. “Taylor doesn’t lie.”
“She did this morning.”
“I don’t understand. Are you saying that she knows where Ford’s gone?”
The warm sun was reflected in her hair, and unable to resist, Donovan walked over to her and ran his hand down the molten copper strands. “I’m not sure. But she does know a helluva lot more than she’s telling.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I’ve no idea.”
“But you’ll find out.”
“I’ll do my damndest. Not for her. But because you asked me to. Meanwhile there’s something else I need to tell you…
“I thought of you, Lani,” he said, getting to his real reason for having come here. Since he hadn’t managed to get anything out of her friend, he could’ve called or texted her about the unsatisfactory breakfast meeting. “All night. And not just last night, but the night before that. I can’t get you out of my mind.”
“You certainly don’t sound very happy about it.” Nor was his frown at all encouraging.
“This can’t go anywhere,” he warned, as his hand slipped beneath her hair.
“And you call yourself a detective,” she said as she decided that the touch of his fingers on her neck was the closest thing to foreplay she’d had in a very long while. And if he could have her bones melting with just that butterfly-light touch, what could he do to her body with that perfectly shaped mouth? “I figured that out between the lighthouse and the tea.”
A long, vibrating moment hummed between them as he looked down at her, and Lani looked back up at him. Below them, the surf beat against the lava rocks crowding the narrow white beach, as it had for millions of years. The cry of seabirds, diving for fish, filled the plumeria-scented air, mingling with the carefree laughter of children frolicking in the playground adjacent to the small library building.
“Me, too. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting you,” he said.
“You’re not alone in that. Me wanting you, I mean.”
He shouldn’t feel so good, she thought, looking out at the silver splash of a family of dolphins playing offshore while she gathered her scattered thoughts. Shouldn’t taste so good. But he did, and heaven help her, she was so very, very tempted.
Lani was seriously considering taking the rest of the day off, when her phone chimed. “I’d better answer,” she said, not taking her eyes from his. “In case it’s Taylor.”
He rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Go ahead.”
It was. “Lani,” the voice, edging near hysteria asked, “is Donovan with you?”
“As a matter of fact, he is.”
“I need you,” she said between sobs. “Both of you. Now.”
“Of course.” Donovan had dropped his hands and no longer looked anything like a man on vacation with seduction in mind, but rather the crime-busting detective he was. “Where are you?”
“At Ford’s shop.” More sobs. “Hurry!”
* * *
They took her Jeep to the docks, where they found Taylor sitting in the midst of what could charitably be called a mess. It looked as if a hurricane had gone through Pacific Paradise Adventures.
Boxes of equipment had been slashed open and masks, snorkels, and tanks tossed carelessly aside. The usually well-stocked shelves were bare, their contents spread over the floor. A saltwater aquarium had been overturned; the gaily colored tropical fish lay lifeless among the wreckage. Ford’s shop had been thoroughly, expertly ransacked.
“What on earth?” Lani stared in disbelief at the scene.
“It’s no better next door,” Taylor moaned, jerking her head in the direction of the door that connected the two businesses. “It’ll take me all day to clean up all my candy-making supplies they threw out of the cupboards.”
“What were they looking for, Taylor?” Donovan asked. From his calm expression, Lani got the impression that such vandalism was a routine event for him. All in a day’s work. She marveled at his ability to remain composed when her own heart was beating like a jackhammer.
Taylor’s blonde hair skimmed her shoulders as she shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Dammit.” Donovan crouched down in front of her, grabbed her shoulders, and gave her a firm shake. “Don’t you realize this is getting serious? You could be in danger, Taylor. The goons who tore this place apart weren’t just looking for something. They made this mess was to send you a message and Ford a message and could decide to come after you next. As soon as they figure out that you know what he’s been up to.”
Taylor’s golden complexion went chalk white. “But I don’t,” she wailed. She turned accusing, tear-filled eyes toward Lani. “You didn’t tell me he was so mean.”
Lani shot Donovan a sharp look. “Can’t you see she’s had a terrible shock?” She joined them amid the rubble on the floor and took hold of her friend’s hand. “Taylor,” she coaxed softly, “why did you lie to Donovan?”
Taylor’s startled green eyes flew to Donovan, seeking confirmation of Lani’s words, but his expression remained inscrutable. “Oh, Lani,” she said, “I wanted to tell you. But I was afraid you’d think that I’m a terrible person.”
“Never,” Lani assured her.
“A few weeks ago,” Taylor said as she scrubbed at her wet cheeks with the backs of her hands, “a man came into my shop to buy some candy for his kids. He said he was an FBI agent who’d been sailing the islands and had dropped in for a meeting with the local police. Anyway, he was friendly enough, although a bit formal for my usual taste, and in a kind of stiff, mainland way, good-looking.”
She glanced over at Donovan. “Actually, now that I think about it, he reminded me a great deal of you, Donovan.”
“Thanks. I think,” Donovan returned dryly. “What did this FBI agent want with you?”
“I told you,” Taylor insisted, “he simply came into the shop to buy some saltwater taffy. But it was a slow day, and Ford had taken a two-day charter over to the Big Island, so I was grateful to have someone to talk to.”
“What did you talk about?” Donovan asked.
“Really, Donovan,” Taylor protested, “that’s a little personal.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, this vandalism has gotten more than a little personal,” Donovan pointed out. “So let’s try it again. What did you two talk about?”
“Just the usual things men and women talk about when the man is trying to pick the woman up and the woman’s trying to decide whether she’s going to let him. Surely you’ve got a few tried-and-true lines of your own, Donovan.”
She paused for a moment, waiting for a response that didn’t come. Lani suspected that the long, drawn-out silence would work well during interrogations. It was certainly beginning to get on her nerves. And apparently Taylor’s, as well, because her friend caved. As Donovan had obviously expected her to.
“After a while, he asked me if I wanted to have a drink with him,” Taylor finally said. “Since I wasn’t doing any business anyway, I agreed and closed the store early. Of course that was my big mistake.”
“Why?” Lani asked.
“Because I was attracted to him, that’s why. Despite the fact that he was all wrong for me. For heaven’s sake, Lani, haven’t you ever been irresistibly drawn to a man against your better judgment?”
As Lani felt Donovan’s gaze shift to her, she refused to look at him. “Of course I have,” she mumbled. “Are you telling me that things went beyond a drink?”
Taylor tugged her hand loose and began twisting it with the other in her lap. “Oh, I knew it was foolish. He told me up front he was married. And, of course, I was engaged to Ford. But after my third Painkiller—”
“That’s not drugs,” Lani jumped in to assure Donovan. “It’s a drink. A very good one, actually, with dark rum, coconut, fruit juice with nutmeg on top. But it’s lethal.”
“Apparently.” Donovan looked right into Taylor’s eyes in a way Lani recognized. He had a way of doing that which she’d decided also was a result of his police work. “Go on.”
“We went to his boat, which was docked at the marina, and had sex.”
“Do you think perhaps Ford found out about it?” Lani asked. “And perhaps that’s why he left the island?” And you? she thought but didn’t want to say.
“I don’t know,” Taylor admitted. “We went to Da Conch bar instead of The Blue Parrot, where Ford always goes, which I thought would be safer, but it’s possible someone saw us and told him.”
“There’s also a chance the guy who came into your store wasn’t an agent at all,” Donovan said. “Did you ask for identification?”
“No. But I didn’t have to, because he flashed a badge.”
“But you have a name.”
“Bob.”
“How about a last name?”
“I’m afraid not. He probably said it, but either I didn’t catch it in the beginning or forgot after the Painkillers.”
“I told you they were lethal,” Lani said.
“Seems so.”
Taylor Young’s expression was miserable. And looked real enough. But then again, the Cascades Killer had looked as harmless as a choir boy. Which was how he’d avoided setting off internal alarms when he’d shown up at his victims’ campsites claiming to be lost. And Ted Bundy hadn’t coaxed all those girls into his VW by acting like the stone-cold serial killer he’d turned out to be.
“Well, with any luck, the police will have some ideas when they go over this place,” he said.
Taylor paled visibly at his words. “Police?”
“You
are
going to call them, aren’t you? They’re bound to take the case more seriously now.”
She paused for the space of a heartbeat. It was a struggle, but she managed to regain her composure. “Of course I’ll call.”
Hell. Donovan nodded brusquely. “Of course,” he agreed, taking Lani’s elbow and leading her out of the shop. “We’ll check back later.”
Once outside, Donovan pulled his shades from where he’d hooked them on the neck of his shirt and shoved them onto his face with more force than necessary. “For a woman supposedly unaccustomed to lying, your friend sure tells some whoppers,” he muttered, the bridge of his nose aching as they returned to the Jeep.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that she no more hooked up with some special agent than I did.”
Lani’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. His gaze was frustratingly enigmatic behind the lenses of the dark glasses. “How on earth did you come to that conclusion? It was obvious that Taylor was horribly upset about what she’d done. For good reason.”
“I’ll give you that she’s upset. And that she’s got a good reason. But I’m not buying that story. It’s nothing but a smoke screen to keep us from finding out the real reason for the vandalism.”
“You can’t know that for certain,” Lani argued.
“Believe me, after a while you get a gut feeling that tells you when a person’s being evasive, something your friend has been doing from the beginning.”
“Whether you believe it or not, she’s horribly upset about Ford’s disappearance. And as much as I want to be with you, after what happened today, she shouldn’t be alone at a time like this. I need to spend the night with her.”
His face gave nothing away, but his eyes revealed both frustration and regret. “Not exactly what I’d had planned for tonight.”
“Me, neither.” So much for breaking her fast.
“Maybe this Ford guy will show up before tonight,” Donovan said without conviction.
“Maybe.” Anything was possible, right? And Mt. Waipanukai might erupt while they were standing there, his gaze moving over her face like a caress that promised the wait would be worth it. Wasn’t she, after all, the one who’d been stressing the appeal of island time?
“Maybe she’ll even tell you whatever it is she knows that she didn’t want to share with me. I’ll stop by the police station and have them do some drive-bys during the night.”
Her blood, which had warmed nicely beneath his hot gaze, chilled. “Do you really think it’s dangerous?”
“If I thought it was, I wouldn’t be leaving you alone. But there’s no point in not taking precautions. Meanwhile, I’m leaving for Oahu in the morning.”
“Why?”
“In the beginning, I figured her fiancé just got cold feet,” he admitted. “But I learned early on never to go for the easy answer. Now that someone has upped the stakes by vandalizing both shops, I’m going to do a little digging.”
Lani’s heart hitched. “Thank you, Donovan,” she managed to say even as she realized that not only was she going to have sex with this man, she was now in danger of having her heart broken when he returned to his real life.