The Flaming Luau of Death (19 page)

“But can you forgive her choice in shower gifts?”

Holly laughed out loud. “Man!”

Liz had been the only friend who hadn’t brought flimsy underwear. Liz brought a book. A volume of IRS tax tips. Ouch.

“Think of it from her side,” Holly said. “She was in love with a guy who was marrying me. I think it was brave of her to even come to my bachelorette weekend.”

“And you don’t hold this against Donald?”

“Hell, Maddie.” She giggled. “He’s a man.” ’Nuff said.

“So,” I said, watching Holly drain her drink, judging whether she could handle one more shock. “With this new turn of events, you aren’t going to freak out on me when I tell you I invited Marvin to meet us here tonight. When he’s finished talking to the police. Should be pretty soon.”

“Marvin?” Holly’s voice squeaked up half an octave. “Here?”

I was sure she and Marvin would have plenty to talk about.

“Say, look,” Holly said, pointing to the door of Club Breeze. “Isn’t that your cute friend Cake?”

I looked. It was. “Yes,” I said. “But I’m not sure I’m
going to hang around with Cake tonight. You better keep your distance too.”

“See? Talking about Honnett got to you, didn’t it?”

I smiled. “I heard something disturbing when I was at the police station tonight. The cops were talking about going to Cake’s house.” I looked at my watch. “They’re probably there right about now. When they don’t find him there, they’ll probably track him down here.”

“You’re kidding,” she said. “What for?”

“He’s been growing illegal plants on his estate. Hiding a nice healthy cannabis crop beneath the cover of bamboo. That’s why Cake was part of the island bamboo society, Holly. He was learning tips on how to grow bamboo in order to shelter his pot farm. He figured it would make the stuff harder to see from the air, from the police helicopters.”

“Do you really believe Cake would do something illegal?”

“I overheard this guy Earl warning Cake to be careful. And Cake said a guy has to make money on this island somehow. Isn’t that odd, Holl? I mean, Kelly Imo and Claudia Modlin and Earl all had dreams of growing bamboo here on this island, and Marvin wanted to save the world by growing wasabi here, but Cake was the practical one. He grew a tried-and-true cash crop, marijuana.”

“Oh, Mad. What a bunch of losers-in-love we’ve turned out to be.”

“Then why do I feel so good?” I asked.

“You’re a born party planner and we’re still having a party?” Holly suggested.

“Cheers!” I clinked glasses with her again. And then I saw the latest arrival to our party at Club Breeze.

“Holly, I can’t believe this. But your fiancé has shown up.”

“My husband?”

“No, hon. Your future former-fiancé.”

“What?” She looked up and scanned the nightclub. Standing near the jukebox was Donald Lake, with the appropriate anguished look on his boyish face.

“Oh, man. What the hell is he doing here?” Holly asked, grabbing my glass and chugging the rest of my drink. “Okay, I’m about to set a man free.”

“Like the catch-and-release program,” I said, giving her encouragement. “Let him go swim free with the other fishes.”

Holly got up and smoothed her silver mini, then walked away, ready and willing to call the wedding off.

Marigold came up to the booth and took the seat Holly had just left vacant. “Can we talk?” she asked.

“Of course. What’s up?”

“I’ve got a confession. I’ve been a real fool.”

“Like a scarlet-bodied wasp moth?” I asked, unable to resist.

“More like a frog,” she said, hanging her head. “Frogs get insatiable frog lust. When frog hormones go into overdrive they can’t think straight.”

“And that’s you?”

“I have had a crush on Marvin Dubinsky ever since I was thirteen. But he was always crazy about Holly. Here I am, the scientist, like Marvin. The brain, like Marvin. And he preferred Holly. Go figure.”

“Indeed. Love is strange.”

“You don’t have to tell me about that,” said Marigold. “I’m the expert.”

“True.”

“Anyway, I need to confess something to Holly, but I
don’t know how to do it. I think I may have sabotaged her love life a little.”

“Really?”

“I was living at home while I went to college. And Holly got one letter every year from Marvin. He mailed it to the house.”

“And you stole the letters. Marigold, how could you!”

“I didn’t read them or anything. I just burned them.”

“Marigold!”

“I know. I can’t explain it, Madeline. I think it was just some form of blind, raving frog lust.”

“But you have to let your sister run her own life,” I said, exasperated. I could never have survived having sisters. I really couldn’t have.

“I know. And the truth is, I haven’t seen Marvin in all these years. So while I’ve been pining away for him, sort of building him up in my mind, I didn’t realize how much the guy might have changed.”

“Really.”

“Yes. I just saw him again, Maddie. He’s actually here. At Breeze.”

So Marvin had shown up at last. How interesting. “What do you think? Did you talk to him?”

“I didn’t recognize him at all. He’s changed. Liz Mooney spotted him first, and he recognized Liz right away. She introduced us. I couldn’t believe what he looks like now. He’s lost every ounce of cuteness. He’s just some average tall guy now. And I just don’t go for tall guys.”

“You don’t?”

“No. I don’t. And so in one quick poof, my frog-lust obsession just evaporated. And I need to tell Holly. How should I do that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it right now, Marigold,” I counseled. “You’re sisters. She’ll understand.”

“Cool. Thanks, Maddie. This is the most rocking party I’ve ever been to. Ever. It has been a hell of a weekend.”

“Glad you’re having fun,” I said. And I was. It was one of my primary goals to make sure all our guests were enjoying themselves, and it warmed my heart to hear her say she was.

“Look, I’m going to go over there and check out that guy by the door,” she said, straining to see through the dancers. “That hot older guy in the Hawaiian shirt. Now that I’m finally over my obsession about Marvin, maybe I’ll get lucky.”

“See you later.” I watched Marigold, tall and gorgeous, walk through the crowd, aiming all her charms at her new prey. And really, to each his or her own. Wasn’t that the basic premise of Marigold’s work at the zoo, after all?

Now in need of another blue Hawaiian, I looked around for the waiter, and instead caught the eye of our favorite tall thin genius, Marvin Dubinsky.

“Hey,” he said, smiling shyly at me. “There you are.”

“Have a seat,” I offered, and Marvin took the spot across the booth.

“It’s pretty crowded in here,” he said, looking with mild alarm at people dancing.

“It’s fun,” I suggested. “Do you good to get out once in a while, Marvin.”

“Look. I never really got to thank you, Madeline,” he said as he scooted into the booth seat. “And I mean, I owe you so much.”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” I said by habit. People are always thanking me, and I’m always putting them at ease like that.

“You saved my life,” he said, staring at me.

Oh, yes. That. I suppose that was something.

He met my eyes and held them. “Thank you so much,” he said again, with deep heartfelt emphasis.

“You’re welcome, Marvin.” I smiled at him. He was pretty cute in a nerdy way. “What was happening with the police after I left?”

“It’s a pretty big mess. The four men they arrested are Japanese nationals. The police have contacted the Japanese embassy in Washington. But everything is fine for us. They caught those guys with the weapon that killed Kelly. They are holding them, pending arrest. I think they’ll have no problem proceeding against them from here on.”

“Good.”

“Look,” Marvin said, “I have been unable to think about anything but Holly since we had our talk tonight. None of the rest of this stuff has really even touched me. Is she here?”

“Of course. Haven’t you seen Holly yet?”

He shook his head no. “Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go and look for her. I’m, like, shaking, I’m so nervous. But I have to face her. I have to know.”

Wes plopped down in the booth, sliding next to me once more. He brought with him two fresh blue Hawaiians and set one down in front of me.

“My hero,” I said, taking the drink. “You saved me yet again.”

“I live to please.” We clinked glasses.

“What a night!”

“Don’t we always say good parties are filled with surprises?” he asked me, chuckling.

“Did you see that
Donald
is here?” I asked, still stunned.

“Yep. Amazing. Surprise guests are great for a party.
He came in on the evening flight from Burbank, I heard,” Wes said. “Couldn’t stay away, apparently. Ain’t love grand?”

I looked over at Wes, opened my mouth, and then shut it again. I could tell him what was really going on another time.

“Did you see who else flew out on that flight?” Wes asked.

I looked over the crowd and could see no one else I recognized. Then I looked again. Seated at a small table was Elmer Minty. Wesley’s grouchy neighbor, Elmer.

“What the hell is he doing here?” I said, laughing.

“I had him flown out here,” Wes said proudly.

“Oh, Wes!”

“Actually, I got Blake Witherspoon to fly Elmer out. They’re both here. See the guy with the purple beret sitting at that table with Elmer? That’s Witherspoon, the one who wants to buy my house.”

“You’re brilliant,” I said, suddenly guessing Wesley’s master plan.

“I told Rachel the only way I’d agree to sell the Hightower property was if my neighbor was happy with the new owner. And Mr. Witherspoon agreed to fly them both out here so we could all three discuss it and settle it tonight. He brought the escrow papers along, just in case it all works out.”

“And he paid for Elmer too?”

“I put that into my counteroffer. Elmer is on his first vacation in fifty-seven years. And he’s loving it. Amazing.”

“Amazing.”

“And the two old guys seem to be hitting it off, so I expect I have just sold my Hightower house, Maddie.”

“Cheers, Wes!” We clinked glasses.

“Cheers!”

“Well, it seems everyone has had an event-filled evening,” I said.

“Extreme-sport event-filled.”

“And now I could use a vacation.”

“What?” Wes looked at me with affection, but he clearly didn’t believe a word I was saying. “You never really relax. You’ve been nonstop party planning and cooking since we arrived here. Even when I tried to get you massaged into oblivion, you found a way to sneak out of the spa and solve a few crimes on your off-party hours.”

“Well, someone had to do that,” I said, joking. “But now I just want to drink a few more blue Hawaiians and totally relax. I think everyone we know on the island has been by the booth tonight, talking to me about their problems, Wes. I think I’m ready to put up a ‘closed’ sign and get smashed.”

Wes leaned over and put his arm around me and whispered in my ear, “Sorry, Mad. It’s not over quite yet. Somebody wants to talk to you. Outside.”

I groaned.

Just then we were joined at the booth by two towering, enormously built men.

“Oh, hey!” Wes said, smiling up at them. “Mad, let me introduce you to my good buddies. Tiki and Bruiser.”

“Hello,” I said. I got out of the booth and they sat down. So these were the Hawaiian Gods of Destruction. “The wrestlers, right?”

“Pleasure to meet you,” said Tiki.

“Woof!” growled Bruiser. I just barely escaped.

Someone was waiting to talk to me. Maybe it was the cops with more questions. Then I worried for a moment
it might be Cake. Perhaps he hoped to get me alone so we could pick up where we had left off. But by now I was so over Cake, I couldn’t believe I had ever taken a guy who called himself a dessert name seriously.

But when I walked through the dance floor, Cake was there swaying to the music. The DJ was spinning a funky old ABBA disc, and Cake had each arm tightly wrapped around one of Holly’s twin sisters. As the record wailed on about “Waterloo,” Cake spotted me while Daisy and Azalea laughed at his jokes. He smiled, as if to say, I’d had my chance and blown it. And I just smiled back, happy to be walking on by, going to meet just about anyone other than Cake outside.

Also spotted on the dance floor, arms around each other, was the stealth couple of Liz Mooney and Donald Lake. I had never seen Liz look happier. Donald seemed dazed, but not really unhappily so. Well, I guess some things manage to work out.

At the bar, I noticed another old buddy of mine. Gabriel Swan was talking to Gladiola Nichols. He was pointing to Gladdie’s chest, and she was shaking her head no. I figured with what Gladdie had been drinking at the bar, even her fairies must be tipsy by this hour.

And that’s when I spotted Holly. She was seated in a little booth halfway up toward the entrance. And she wasn’t alone. Holly was locking lips with an ecstatic Marvin Dubinsky. Their passionate embrace might be considered vulgar, I suppose, if one didn’t take into consideration the fact that man and wife had been separated for eight years. They looked divine together. And now Holly would actually have some fun with her shower gifts. Good for Holly.

The club was hopping, and many of the people were locals, enjoying a fine Saturday night. I scanned the
crowd at the front of the club, and that’s when I saw Earl Maffini talking to Marigold. Good old Earl. My lord, was he the new frog-lust of Marigold’s dreams? I’d never understand Holly’s sisters. Never.

But I felt a little pang of guilt about Earl. I had misjudged him when I’d suspected he might have been involved in the death of Kelly Imo, and for that I was sorry. But I was not convinced I’d been wrong about his other activities. I still wondered if Claudia and he were trying to get rich on bamboo futures. But, after all, what was the harm in a little capitalism? If their efforts to realize Kelly Imo’s dream could help hundreds of islanders find good-paying jobs, I would just keep my nose out of the bamboo.

I pushed my way through the crowd toward Earl. Perhaps he was the one who had been waiting to talk to me. He might have become impatient and come indoors. But no. Now that I was closer, I saw that Earl had his arm around Marigold. They were so deep in conversation he barely looked up as I approached.