Darkness Falls (8 page)

“Well, the situation seems pretty clear to me,” Joe said. “Someone—maybe that guy De La Rosa—drugged Michele and shoved her out to sea to cover up his murder of Ebersol, and maybe the theft of the foundation's funds, too.”

“Whoa!” Frank said, laughing. “Slow down, Joe. We don't know for sure that Michele was drugged. We certainly don't know by whom. She might have taken those two pills and had a bad reaction, maybe from stress. Besides, according to her, De La Rosa flew in last night. If that's true, he wasn't even around when Ebersol was murdered.”

“We can check on that,” Joe said. “But he drugged her for sure. Didn't you see how she was acting? One sedative wouldn't make a person behave like that. It would have taken at least a couple.”

“It could have been an act, too. For all we know, Michele killed her husband and is now trying to put the blame on someone else—just in case they can't pin the murder on Wheeler, I guess,” Frank said, reviewing the possibilities. “Remember—she may be the one who stole our film.”

“I think we ought to tell the police what
happened today,” Joe said. “Maybe they'll want to send someone to protect Michele? Seems to me she's making a lot of enemies—Wheeler, MacLaughlin, De La Rosa …”

“I'm not sure calling the police would do any good,” Frank said. “Michele would only deny she was drugged, and Kanekahana has already told us to keep out of trouble. Anyhow, I think we have to talk to De La Rosa first.”

Frank was lost in thought as he drove down the Kailua strip. “I'll tell you one thing, Joe—that woman is hiding something important. And we've got to find out what it is.”

Back at their hotel, they parked the car and went to the lobby, where they got Richard De La Rosa's room number from the clerk at the front desk. His room was on the third floor in the back, overlooking the pool. “Now let's remember to be nice to this guy,” Frank told his brother. “He could be the key to the whole case.”

“I say we have to check out his time of arrival in Hawaii,” Joe said.

“We will,” Frank assured him. “Later.”

When the Hardys got to the room, they were surprised to find that the door was slightly ajar. Peeking inside, Joe saw that the bed was made and that there were no luggage and personal items around. “The room's empty,” he said to Frank.

“Maybe” was all Frank said. Both brothers knew that, after the events of the past twenty-four hours, they couldn't walk away without having a quick look inside. Frank gestured for Joe to go in first. Joe opened the door, slipping silently inside with Frank right behind him.

The room seemed empty. The brothers tiptoed around, glancing in all directions for any sign of habitation. Frank saw Joe turn the corner to the bathroom area and started to follow him.

Frank was caught up short when he heard Joe gasp. He stood stock-still for a long moment, listening, but there was no further sound. “Joe?” he called out. “Joe, are you all right?”

Before Frank knew what was happening, Joe came back around the corner. His eyes were opened wide, and there was a gun at his head! The man holding the pistol emerged from behind the partition, his face tense with anger and fear.

“I knew she'd send someone after me!” he growled. “I was ready for you! Ha! Now get out of here. Go tell Michele I didn't take the money!” he shouted to Frank, a crazed expression on his face. “Get out now, or I'll kill you both!”

F
RANK'S MIND
was racing. The man certainly seemed capable of blowing Joe's brains out. “Er, Mr. De La Rosa?” Frank began.

“She sent you, didn't she?” the man asked. “Admit it, or I'll blow your friend to smithereens!”

“No, sir,” Frank said, trying to keep his voice steady. “We came on our own.”

“Don't give me that baloney!” De La Rosa said, momentarily waving the gun Frank's way before putting it back to Joe's temple. “She's out to get me, and that's why you're here. Now you're going to tell me everything you know!”

Frank nodded and said, “First of all, my brother and I were asked by Dr. Ebersol to be
assistants at the eclipse. Then, when he was murdered, we decided to investigate. We have some experience as detectives, you see. So we went out to the Ebersols' house this morning to talk to Michele.”

“Aha!” De La Rosa shouted. “I knew it! And then she sent you to search my room, right?”

“No, sir,” Frank insisted, trying to stay calm. “If you'll just put that gun away, we can discuss this like human—”

“Shut up!” De La Rosa ordered. “No way I'm putting this gun down till I get some answers!”

“I'd just like to remind you, sir, that what you're doing is against the law. I'm sure you don't want to make trouble for yourself down the road.” Frank watched De La Rosa to see what effect his words were having. If the man had already killed Ebersol, being charged with another crime wouldn't faze him. On the other hand, if he had only stolen money, he might not want to be charged with a violent crime as well.

“Talk,” De La Rosa said, still holding the gun to Joe's head. “What did she say about me?”

“She said you belonged in jail!” Joe retorted. “She told us to ask you why. Care to comment?”

Joe's words had a strange effect on De La
Rosa because without warning the man lowered his gun and collapsed into a chair.

“Listen,” he said in a soft voice filled with urgency. “I didn't steal any money from the foundation. I was the one who was trying to figure out where it was all going!”

“What did you find out?” Frank asked eagerly.

“Well, a lot went to support Jim Ebersol,” De La Rosa admitted. “I told Jim he couldn't go on living the way he had been. His last book had disappointing sales, and his TV show had been canceled. But he refused to cut down on his expenses. Did you see the house they rented here? Three thousand a week!”

“So that explains the missing funds?” Joe suggested.

“Some of them, but not all,” De La Rosa said, shaking his head. “Even accounting for what they spent, there should have been a lot left over. Either Ebersol was giving it away in bunches without telling anyone, or somebody was stealing from the fund. There's so little left that I had to tell Michele she couldn't have the advance she wanted. That's what we were fighting about this morning.”

“What advance?” Frank asked. “For what purpose?”

“She said she was going to take her husband's place and that she wanted to make a
big publicity push for herself. She was scary. I mean, the guy was just murdered!

“Anyway, I told her I couldn't sell enough stock from the Ebersol Foundation's trust fund to advance her the amount she needed. There are bylaws that prohibit spending the trust's capital beyond a certain point. And we've already reached that point. She blew a gasket when I told her. She threatened me with everything from murder to firing to a lawsuit. But if you want to know the truth, I think
she's
the one who's been stealing the money. Oh, sure, they both blamed me from the beginning. But it's not my fault, and nobody's going to make it my fault!”

“Stay calm, Mr. De La Rosa,” Frank advised. “We're not accusing you of anything.”

“How long has money been disappearing from the trust?” Frank asked.

“About a year,” De La Rosa said. “Since just after I came on board. Several hundred thousand dollars is what we're talking about. It's put the foundation in serious financial trouble.”

“Tell me how the foundation is set up,” Frank said.

“Basically, Ebersol is—was—allowed to seek funding from the corporate sponsors of his TV show. The corporations would donate cash or stock to the foundation, and in return he would
plug their message and their products on the show. Of course, that all fell apart when the show was canceled.”

De La Rosa sighed in frustration. “I kept telling Jim that he had to reestablish his scientific credibility—spend less time on the talk show circuit and more time in the lab, working. And I'll bet in addition to everything else, she's even accusing me of his murder—am I right?”

“No, sir,” Frank said, wondering what had made De La Rosa bring that up. “She didn't say anything like that. Only that you belonged in jail.”

“Besides,” Joe broke in, “they've already arrested someone for Ebersol's murder. Why would she accuse you?”

“I, er, I didn't say that she did for certain.” De La Rosa backtracked. “I was only guessing—”

“Tell us more about Ebersol and Michele,” Frank urged. “What were they like as people?”

“That's easy,” De La Rosa said. “They were two spoiled children who expected everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. They had no idea what anything cost. They just charged everything to the lab and expected money to appear in front of them.”

“Is that how she behaved this morning?” Frank asked. “When she demanded the advance from you?”

“Yes,” De La Rosa said, frowning. “You know, I don't know why she should care so much about an advance when in a few days she's going to collect a life insurance payment for Ebersol's death.”

“Wait a minute,” Joe said. “Are you implying that Michele had something to do with her husband's murder?”

“I'm not accusing anyone of anything,” the foundation manager said nervously. “Listen, I need to be alone for a while.” He walked over to the door and opened it. “Please leave.”

“If you want to talk, we're staying right here in the hotel,” Frank told him on their way out. De La Rosa nodded, but said nothing more, and closed the door firmly behind them.

“I don't know what to make of that guy,” Joe said as the boys walked down the one flight outdoors to the second floor. “He's completely nuts! I thought he was going to kill us!”

“Calm down, Joe,” Frank cautioned him. “You're fine, and we just learned a whole lot.”

“I guess you're right,” Joe said, smoothing his shirt. “So where are we now?” he asked, leaning against the railing that overlooked the street.

“At this point we've got a few suspects in Ebersol's murder,” Frank said. “Michele, De La Rosa, MacLaughlin, and Wheeler. But of those four, only Wheeler and Michele had obvious
motives, and they had the best opportunity to kill him, too. De La Rosa was in an airplane—at least as far as we know. As for MacLaughlin, he was with us in the tent when the murder happened.”

“De La Rosa has a possible motive,” Joe pointed out. “If Ebersol knew he was stealing from the foundation, De La Rosa might have wanted to shut him up: We have to check on his flight. Come to think of it, we should check in with Everett, too. He's probably at the observatory.”

“I don't think so,” Frank said. “I see his van in the lot over there.”

The Hardys found Everett in his room, surrounded by papers and charts, a pencil in his hand. Sheets of data from the eclipse were spread out all over the bed and floor.

“There was too much commotion at the observatory, with the police and all, so I brought my data back here,” he told them. “The only time I've been out was for breakfast this morning to show Michele the data from my sensors. This is spectacular stuff! From the preliminary results, I'd say we have convincing proof of the exploded planet!”

“That's fantastic, Everett,” Joe said, slapping the research assistant on the back.

“If only Dr. Ebersol were here to see this,” MacLaughlin said with a sigh.

When Joe and Frank told him about the theft of their film from the tent, MacLaughlin was aghast. “This is a disaster,” he said. “We need that film to corroborate my findings!”

“We did manage to save the roll of film that was still in the camera,” Joe told him consolingly. “We might get a few good pictures yet.”

“Have you developed it?” MacLaughlin asked.

“No,” Frank said. “It's in the refrigerator in our hotel room. So far, we've been too busy.”

“Too busy?” MacLaughlin said, his face flushing. “Which do you think Ebersol would have wanted you to investigate—his murder or the existence of a possible tenth planet? It's science that matters, not whether any one scientist lives or dies!”

“Take it easy, Mr. MacLaughlin,” Joe said. “We're detectives, remember? We only got invited here because we did a science project.”

“I don't care why you think you're here,” MacLaughlin said, acting more forceful than the brothers had ever seen him before. “The foundation paid for you to come here, and you're responsible for certain things. I'm the head of this research project now, and I expect you to be at the observatory first thing tomorrow morning, getting that film developed. I want a report ready for our team meeting at four
P.M.
Understand?”

Frank and Joe were stunned. Obviously, MacLaughlin didn't know about Michele's plans to drop him from the team and take credit for the discovery herself.