Hibiscus Homicide (Maui Mayhem Cozy Mystery Book 4) Page 8

  Stevie glanced at me and Reese, then stared at the ground.

  “Killing us will put more years on your sentence. If you stop now, you may just have a life after parole.” I needed desperately to convince them to spare our lives. “Take my word for it, you’re already on the top of my detective friend’s suspect list. He’ll hunt you down.”

  Neither said a word but I knew their thoughts were buzzing with panic. My intimidation was hitting home. I couldn’t stop now.

  “The detective knows about the hibiscus flower that you put in Nani’s hair, Stevie. And the charm for her bracelet you planned to give as a birthday gift.” Gads, I hope we were right about those. Our lives were at stake so what the heck. I had to give it my all even if none of that was conclusive. “We know you were in love with Nani. You didn’t premeditate her murder, right?”

  He shook his head.

  “It was a crime of passion, so they’ll take that into consideration. But if you help your mom kill us, then that would take you down the hell hole even further. You may never get out.”

  “Stop scaring my boy!” Theresa yelled at me.

  “He should be scared. Very scared. You should be too! Kill us and you will go down a very bad path. Even worse than the path you’re already destined on.”

  Oh my god. I hoped what I was saying steered them the direction I wanted; otherwise, Reese and I were screwed.

  “Mom! Let’s just hide them and get on a plane out of Maui!” At least Stevie got on board my train. C’mon, Mama. Don’t be stupid. Your boy knows when to cut his losses.

  Theresa stared at me. I sensed a whole lot of fear and confusion going on behind those eyes. Not much different than mine—although her fear was for her future, and my fear was closer in time. I could be dead in a matter of minutes. Seconds even.

  “We need the money from the estate, Stevie. It’s your inheritance.”

  “What good is that money if we’re in jail for the rest of our lives? Mom, we have to leave. We have to leave NOW!” Stevie squirmed and paced around as though he needed to pee.

  “Your son is right. You will be put away for the rest of your lives if you add two more murders to your count. If you don’t care about yourself, think about your son. He’s young enough that he would still have a life to look forward to if his sentence is shorter.”

  I prayed Theresa would listen to reason.

  Surprisingly, Reese stayed silent all the while, letting me do all the talking. What a relief that was. You never can tell what comes out of that guy’s mouth, especially when he’s angry.

  But in this situation, his emotion was fear, not anger. That gun in Theresa hand gave Reese a reason to hush up. I believe he knew he might say something that would trigger the wrong response. His sarcasm has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. But he never faced the threat of death.

  I needed to buy time and keep them talking.

  “Stevie, why did you kill Nani?” I asked.

  Chapter 14

  Stevie looked at me with basset hound eyes. “S-s-she was fooling around. I overheard her talking to her lover on her cell phone outside. She didn’t see me. She didn’t know I was there. When I heard her tell him she loved him, I went crazy. It was as though I had an out-of-body experience and watched myself grab my dad’s gun from its hiding place, then as though in a trance, stood behind her in the kitchen and pulled the trigger. I don’t even remember how many times I shot her. Or if I even spoke to her before doing it.”

  Tears flowed from the boy’s eyes.

  “Then what happened?” I needed to hear more.

  Stevie backhand-swiped his nose.

  “My dad rushed in and took the gun from my hand. He carried Nani to the bedroom and I followed him. He placed her on the bed, and she looked so beautiful, so peaceful. Like she didn’t even know she was shot. My dad yelled at me to leave, to go to my mom’s house, so I did.

  “I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do. My mom could see I’d been crying and the panic I was in, so I told her about what I’d done. Then we went back to the house because she needed to find out what my dad was going to do.”

  More tears dribbled down his face.

  “When you came back with your mom, you put the hibiscus flower in Nani’s hair?”

  He nodded.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “I wanted to give her something to remember me by.”

  Temporary insanity was one thing, but this poor boy needed a shrink.

  “Why did you take her bracelet?”

  “I wanted to keep something that was a part of her. Something she cherished.”

  “How come the charm you were going to give her was on the ground outside?”

  “I had started to attach it to the bracelet in the bedroom but my mom startled me. Then we rushed out and she snatched the bracelet from me when she saw it in my hand. The charm must’ve fallen off. I probably didn’t get it latched securely enough.”

  Turning to Theresa, I asked, “What did you do with the bracelet?”

  “It’s none of your business. But if you must know, I got rid of it. Nobody will be able to find it. My son will never be traced to it.”

  Sweat gathered upon my upper lip. The way she swung that gun made me squirm like a caterpillar about to be eaten by a bird.

  “Mom, please, let’s just get out of here,” Theresa’s son pleaded. “I don’t want anybody else killed.”

  I had to give the boy credit for having a conscience. He was our only chance at changing his mother’s mind about offing us. I prayed she’d listen to him.

  Her attention went to her son now. Stevie had plopped to the ground, holding his head in his hands while he sobbed.

  “Don’t do the wrong thing, Theresa. You son’s life is in your hands. He’s still got a chance. Kill us and you’ll have ruined that. And you’re young enough that with only two counts, even you’ll be out on good behavior in a few years. Kill us and you’ll be locked away for life.”

  She might still get out on good behavior with years left to her life whether killing us or not. I wouldn’t know that for sure, but I sure as heck wanted to instill the most negative scenarios possible.

  I had to convince her that things indeed could get worse for her and her son in case she was thinking there was nothing left to lose. She had a lot more to lose by offing two more victims.

  “You’ll never get off the island. Your faces will be plastered on the news and in the papers. This island is too small to not be recognized. You both will get caught. There’s no escape.”

  The only way Reese and I would make it out of this alive was to appeal to her sensibilities. Theresa wasn’t an airhead. Rationality reserved a seat in her brain.

  “Mom, I don’t want to die in prison,” Stevie said in between sobs. “Mom ...”

  “Hush up, Stevie. Let me think for a moment.” Theresa’s hand trembled. The gun wobbled as if it had a life of its own.

  A cell phone rang. It was mine.

  “That’s my detective friend calling. I should answer it. He knows I’m here at the estate and he’s probably on his way.”

  It were as though Theresa had beheld Medusa’s face.

  Two more rings.

  Still no sign of life from Theresa. Face frozen, she kept staring at me. Her mind must’ve been reeling, flipping through scenarios of what she should do.

  “I should answer,” I repeated.

  “Shut up! Let me think!”

  I jumped at the volume of her voice.

  Then the ringing stopped. The caller—hopefully it was Pako—was sent to voicemail.

  “Mom, what are we going to do?” Stevie was more frightened than ever. He knew that if what I had said was true, a police detective would be paying a visit soon.

  “Get up,” she told Reese, waving her gun at him.

  “Mom, what are you going to do?”

  “Stevie, help him up.”

  With his hands tied behind his back, Reese was having difficul
ty lifting his butt off the ground.

  Once my assistant rose to his feet, Theresa once again wielded her gun at us and said, “Start walking.”

  I can tell you this, my legs wanted to buckle and bile rose to my throat. Maybe she was a ditz after all and reasoning never made it past her ears.

  “You’re not going to get away with this, Theresa.”

  Then Reese chimed in with a “You’d better stop your mother or you’re gonna regret it. Be a man for once, you sniveling idiot!”

  Dang it, Reese. You should’ve left out the name-calling. That was unhelpful.

  Unfortunately, Stevie would rather be a sniveling idiot than oppose his mother.

  “Head over to the kayaks,” she said. We were past the shed and headed toward the backside of the house.

  If it were only Theresa, I might be able to lunge low, for her legs, so she didn’t have time to react, then tackle her to the ground and get hold of the gun, but with Stevie so close, that wasn’t going to work.

  “Stop here,” she commanded once we were at the kayaks. Two of them lay side by side on the ground.

  “Stevie, move the kayaks off to the side.”

  What was she up to?

  Once her son finished his task, she said, “Now lift the platform.”

  Platform?

  Her son did as was told. Propping up the hatch, he rested it against the wall of the house.

  Was that an entrance to a basement? People normally didn’t construct this type of thing in Hawaii, so it seemed odd.

  “Go ahead, get in,” Theresa told me.

  I hesitated, looking down into the dark cavernous pit.

  “It’s a bomb shelter. Kyle’s grandfather built it after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He became paranoid even though chances the same thing would happen here were slim.”

  Looked like she was going to hole us up in there. Guess that was a heck of a lot better than notching holes in our bodies.

  Since there was a chance of our survival, I wasn’t going to attempt fighting her and chance getting shot. I had a feeling she wanted us to live. My threats worked on her after all. Thank god!

  As I descended the ladder, an emergency light flicked on and the dimness turned brighter.

  “Stevie’s going to untie your hands so you can grab hold of the rungs, but try anything and I’m blowing your brains out,” I heard Theresa tell Reese above me.

  I knew my assistant well enough that he wasn’t about to play hero. Getting shot would not suit his lifestyle. At all.

  Looking upward, I watched as Reese’s okole in his khaki cargo shorts got closer and closer to my face. Moving a few paces backward, I gave him room to join me on the ground.

  Just as his feet touched down, the sound of metal creaking shrieked in my ears and soon only the emergency light illumed the cell.

  Reese frowned at me.

  “Well, at least we’re not dead,” I said, although that statement didn’t make me feel any better. Just trying to make a dire situation more positive, I guess.

  “Not yet, anyway.” And of course, Reese, being more of a pessimist, had to remind us of that.

  But, yeah, being locked up underground was no consolation to our predicament.

  “Have faith, Reese. Pako will find us.”

  “That’s if he even knows this thing is here. Or that we might be in it.”

  My eyes surveyed the cubicle. It wasn’t meant to be a long-term living arrangement, that was for sure. A prison cell had more décor. Obviously, the plan was to hide out in it for a few hours until the bombing subsided. Two lovers rendezvousing in a hotel room would stay longer than those hiding out in here.

  I sure hoped we’d have enough oxygen if we’re down here more than a day. Dread hit me like a whiff of ammonia.

  “What’s the matter?” Reese asked. “Your face just lost all signs of life.”

  I shook my head to not worry him. “I’m okay.”

  Even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I pulled out my cell phone to see if there was a signal.

  Damn. Of course there wasn’t. Could things get any worse?

  “Um, Ginger.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, looking back up into his face.

  “I have to pee.” His expression was more that of horrification than sheepishness.

  “You have got to be kidding me?” You don’t know how much I wished he was. “There’s no place to do that, Reese. And it is gonna reek in here without adequate ventilation.”

  “I know, but what am I gonna do?” He shrugged. He looked desperate, quite frankly.

  “Okay, let’s see if we can find something for you to do it in so we can contain the smell somewhat.”

  Oh my god, there was nothing in this freaking cell. I rummaged my purse that previously had never left my shoulder. Thank goodness, I had a 16-ounce water bottle in there.

  There wasn’t much liquid left so I said, “You might as well drink the rest of it, because who knows when we’ll get a swig again.”

  “You drink some first,” he told me. So I did. I drank half of the quarter amount that filled the bottle.

  I passed it over to Reese. He tanked down the rest and shook the bottle dry.

  “Okay, you’d best go in a corner and do your thing.”

  “Can you close your ears?”

  “Seriously?” My forehead wrinkled.

  “I can’t go if you’re standing there listening.”

  Cupping my hands over my ears, I turned my back on him. My thoughts went to Pako. I prayed he’d find us soon because in an hour or two my own bladder would be crying out for relief.

  Thinking there wouldn’t be any room left in that water bottle by the time Reese got done, worried me as much as the situation we were in did. Gawd! If I wasn’t so scared that we might not make it out of here, I’d find that funny.

  I felt a tap on my shoulder.

  “I’m done,” my assistant said.

  My eyes zoomed in to the now yellowed water bottle sitting lonely in the corner.

  “Do you have Kleenex?” This time, his face wore the sheepish mask.

  The way he held out his hands conveyed the need for the tissue. “Did you ever try peeing into a small water bottle?”

  “You’re in luck.” I pulled out a packet of Wet-Nap, tore it open and handed him the square toilette.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” I smiled.

  Okay, so much for Reese’s peeing session. On to trying to figure out how to get out of here.

  “Reese, climb up and see if you can budge the hatch.”

  They had probably secured it and put the kayaks back on top, but it was still worth a try. Not like we had anything better to do.

  “No luck,” he yelled down once he gave it a shot.

  Damn. Looked like we were stuck here until somebody miraculously found us. That didn’t bode well.

  I shimmied down the wall and plopped my butt down on the cement floor, hugging my bent knees.

  Reese sat against the opposite wall.

  “What happened, Reese? How’d Theresa nab you?” I had to know.

  My assistant bowed his head and shook it a few times. He probably dreaded having to tell me the story.

  “I wanted to go back to see if Theresa had the bracelet since I only checked out her son’s room, so I—”

  “Ah, so you played Watson, on your own, without telling me,” I interrupted.

  “Sorry, Ginger. I thought I’d surprise you.” He looked like a dejected child.

  “I take it she caught you.”

  “She threatened to call the police if I didn’t confess what I was looking for. Then she pulled out a gun and made me tell her the rest of it.”

  A part of me wanted to pluck out his nose hairs one by one with a tweezer for playing sleuth without telling me, while the other part of me wanted to hug him for trying to help with this case.

  “It’s a good thing that I didn’t heed that text message and told Pako where I was going to be.”


  “Yeah, when he sees your car here—”

  “Oh crap.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “My car isn’t parked on the premises. I parked on a dirt road, not far, but Pako might not see it if he turns into the Wilder estate’s driveway.”

  “Why’d you do that for?”

  “Because I had suspicions that your text message might not be what it seemed, which turned out to be right. I didn’t want anyone seeing me drive up to the house. Unfortunately, Theresa wasn’t in the house but out back where I tried to sneak in from.”

  Reese raked his hair. “We’re in deep doo aren’t we?”

  “I’m afraid so. But let’s hope Pako will figure it out. In fact, I have faith he will.” At least that’s what I was going to tell myself.

  Looking at the glass half full was a heck of a lot better than empty. I’d be in sheer misery, not to mention, grumpy as hell, if I didn’t hold on to some sort of hope. Reese wouldn’t want to be locked up with me while I was in ‘grumpy’ mode. No, he really wouldn’t. A gun to his head would make him less nervous.

  “Ginger?”

  “Yes?”

  “I have to pee again.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I held it too long when being held captive.” He frowned.

  Gawd.

  Chapter 15

  I was seriously starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it out. My watch indicated we’d been down in this dungeon for four hours. Four hours!

  Both Reese and I had been sweating profusely that our urine probably seeped out through our pores by now. Neither of us needed to take a trip to the water bottle, thank god. Not that there was any room left in it anyway.

  Okay, something was seriously wrong with me when concerns about peeing came before the fact that we were nearing the end of our lifelines.

  Reese laid on his side and moaned. “He’s not gonna find us, Ginger. We’re gonna die down here.”

  “He’ll find us. Don’t talk like that.” But I had doubts myself. Just couldn’t bring myself to give up just yet. One of us had to keep the faith.

  “If I die first, you’d better not turn cannibal on me.”

  Oh my god, Reese was talking nonsense.

  “Reese, you’re NOT going to die. Stop saying that.”