Death in Paradise (48 page)

I told him how I'd questioned Rory about the phones. I told him how Linda Janovich had overheard my conversation with the Elliot sisters, when they told me they were sure they'd seen Jeff Pullman at the hotel on Friday night, when he was supposed to be at home in Washington. I told them about the stuff on Rory's computer and how I'd sent messages back to her correspondents. I told him how Laura was sure she'd seen Jeff on her floor around the time Martina was killed. "Even before I'd figured out what I knew, they'd figured out what they thought I knew. That's the downside, I suppose, of having a reputation for being a detective. They thought I was here because someone was suspicious, when the real reason I'm here is because my partner got sick."

"I see you've got your bags packed. Leaving tomorrow?"

"First light," I said. "Bernstein told me to get out of town. I wish I'd listened to him. Maybe Rory would still be..."

He shook his head. "That didn't have anything to do with you. They had to get rid of her. She knew too much and she was too unstable."

"At least little Laura would have been safe."

"Hard to make a call about that, either," he said. "That little girl saw an awful lot."

"That little girl is a treasure. I'd like to spank her mother, though."

"Me, too."

"Detective..."

"Yes?"

"There's still something that's puzzling me. About everyone else." I told him how everyone had a reason for wanting Martina dead. I told him about Jonetta and her strange behavior. About the tale she'd spun around Rob Greene. About how I'd found her listening to my messages again and then she'd lied and said she was calling room service. About her promise to follow me and how she hadn't. "Why would she do all that?"

He lifted his broad shoulders and spread his hands. "Beats me. I guess I'll have to ask her."

"Will you tell me what she says? Please? Just this once, don't let it be a one-way street?"

"Just this once."

"And I suppose you've talked with Billy Berryman?" That time I only got one of Nihilani's grunts.

He got up, pulled his chair over, and took my hand. His was warm, while I was shaking like a leaf. "For all the trouble we've given one another, it's been a pleasure doing business with you, Thea Kozak. I'm sorry we gave you such a hard time. And I'm sorry your visit to Maui was such a bummer. It really is a beautiful place. Come back sometime when you're not on business. Maybe on your honeymoon? I'd kind of like to meet this guy Lemieux. He's a brave man."

While I was still wondering what he meant by that, he dropped my hand and stood up. "Guess I'd better go interview bad guys." He hesitated, cleared his throat, and said, "Alleged bad guys. Maybe you ought to walk me to the door, so you can lock up afterwards?"

I pushed back my blanket and got to my feet. It wasn't easy. Lying down and letting my body relax had only given it a chance to realize how battered and broken it was. I felt like I'd been whacked from head to toe with baseball bats. I followed him to the door, depressed to see that I was shuffling like a grandma again, and waited to do the locks.

"You take care of yourself," he said, patting me on my un-wounded shoulder.

"That advice comes a little too late. Say good-bye to Lenny for me." I shut the door behind him and locked it. I should have been happy. Laura was safe and the killers had been caught. But there was that lingering doubt in my mind about Jonetta. I still didn't know what to think. And for once I was too tired to march forth and gather the answers myself. I arranged for a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call, took two Advil, curled up on my couch, and waited for sleep. Just another busy night in paradise.

 

 

 

Chapter 33

 

I was just drifting off when there was a knock on my door. I ignored it. The knocking got louder. Hell and damn. After all I'd been through, couldn't they leave me alone? I raised myself up on an elbow and yelled, "Go away. I'm sleeping."

The knocking stopped. I closed my eyes and lowered myself slowly back down, reaching for the blanket to pull it up. "Thea!" It was Jonetta's voice. "Let me in. We need to talk."

Wasn't this how everything had begun, with someone knocking on my door? "Go away!" I yelled again. I pulled the blanket over my head.

"If you don't let me in, I'll call security and tell them I'm afraid something has happened to you."

I'd heard that one before, too. I got up, ever so slowly, and made my way to the door. I peered through the spy-hole. Jonetta stared right at me, her brilliant turban askew, her face just inches from mine. "I'm giving you one minute," she said, "and then I'm calling for help."

I undid the locks, opened the door, and stood back to let her in. She swept past me, majestic, elegant. Behind her came Zannah, Rob Greene, Shannon, and Jolene. It looked, to my bleary eyes, as if we were about to have a board meeting.

I curled back up on my couch. I couldn't stand on ceremony, no matter who came visiting. I was too weary. I plucked at the blanket, but it was Jolene who pulled it up and tucked me in. "Jonetta was upset," she said. "She thinks you believe she was involved in Martina's death. She asked us to come with her to talk to you. So we can finally get all the stuff out on the table that we should have had out all along."

"Your timing sucks," I said.

She inclined her head in a schoolmarmish way. "We know that. We also know you're leaving tomorrow. We talk now or—"

"Forever hold your peace," I suggested.

"First of all," Zannah said, "we want you to know how grateful we are for everything you've done."

"You mean getting jumped, drowned, and stabbed on behalf of the organization, or do you mean getting the room arrangements straightened out and giving some necessary speeches?"

"She means both," Jonetta said. "Now, girl, we know that you have had an awful day, and you know that we wouldn't bother you like this if it wasn't important—"

I started to interrupt, but she put a finger to her lips and hushed me. "Before you spout off, just give me a chance. Just sit still long enough to hear what we've come to say. Then you can throw us out and go home and if it's what you want, you never have to see any of us again."

"Fat chance, Netta. We're all in the same business. You all going to quit if I ask you to?"

"Don't be such a brat," she said.

"Hey! I've just—"

"We all know what you've just been through. What, you think you're the first person in the history of the world to have a hard day?"

I closed my eyes and wished I could close my ears.

"We all care about you, Thea. We all admire you. We all think you're the bravest, toughest kid on our block, and we all want to be like you when we grow up," Jonetta said, "but sometimes even the tough kids get things wrong. Now, you think that because I wasn't as brave as you, because I wasn't willing to take that long walk in the dark to meet the bad guys, that I must have been one of them—"

"Oh, Netta, it's not that, I just—"

"You gonna let me finish or am I going to have to sit on you?"

A fate worse than death. "Let you talk," I said.

"You heard me listening to that message, didn't you?" I nodded. "And because I was embarrassed, I told you a lie... which was stupid, because you then took that lie and decided that I was listening to that message because I was going to delete it, or some such thing, right?"

I felt like the interrogation victim in the movies, the one they shine the bright light on and then question for hours. "Right," I said sullenly.

"And you thought that I was trying to talk you out of going out there tonight because I didn't want those other guys, my accomplices, caught, right?"

"I did wonder...."

"Well, I don't blame you for thinking any of those things. I was muddled and I was a coward and I wasn't a stand-up gal and I'm not particularly proud of that, Thea. Even us tough gals sometimes got feet of clay. But I couldn't let you go back to Boston believing that I was one of them. That any of us were involved in what happened to Martina." There was a chorus of affirmation from the group. "Now, you have heard everyone's stories, so you know we all had reasons to want her off the board. We all had reasons to dislike her... to hate her... intensely. But Thea, all that we are guilty of here is stupidity. Stupidity, blindness, and a failure to communicate."

She made a small sound, almost like a chuckle. I opened my eyes. She was smiling. "It's like you told that policeman. Nihilani. The stolid, sullen one with the gunmetal eyes. We have disagreements on this board, but we work them out by talking. We work them out like mature adults should. We don't solve our problems by killing each other—"

"At least," Jolene interrupted, "that's how we're supposed to work."

"And if we had been working that way," Shannon added, "this whole mess might not have happened. Jeff and Linda really took advantage of the situation, knowing that no one was likely to be forthcoming, because each of us had such strong resentments. They figured we wouldn't notice them because we'd be so busy wondering about each other. Each of us had... well... a motive."

"Especially me," Rob Greene said. "But she might not have spun so far out of control—Martina, I mean—if we hadn't all been so busy nursing our own private grudges that we forgot to work together as a board."

I struggled to a sitting position. Rob, who must have had a nice mother because he had wonderful manners, rushed to help me. "Look, we don't have to deal with all this tonight. When we get home, we can have a meeting, and..." I wanted to be civil. They were all being so nice, but I was so terribly tired. At this rate, someone was going to have to fold me and pack me and carry me to my plane.

"Poor Thea," Jolene said. "We didn't come here to be tiresome. We know what you've been through. We just came to assure you that we weren't involved... to have each of us, individually, assure you to your face... that... well, you know... what we've all said... and to ask you to forgive Jonetta and to stop acting like she carries the plague."

I looked over at Jonetta. A moment ago she had been on the verge of chuckling, now she just looked terribly sad. "I think of you," she said, "as a wise and thoughtful co-worker. But I also think of you..." Her voice dropped into a lower register, one that was richer and more vibrant, a speech-giving voice. "I also think of you as a sister. As my beloved little sister, the one I'm so proud of when she does well, the one I admire, the one who always seems to be able to do things a little better than I can, and I'm not even jealous because I want her to succeed. So tonight, when my little sister wanted to go out and do something that I considered stupid and dangerous... I tried to stop you. I tried to slow you down and muddle things up to keep you from going. Listening to those messages again was a last-ditch effort to see if I could figure things out, find something to clarify this business. Maybe something to stop you. And what do I get?"

There was a long, long pause. "I get what I deserve. I get your suspicions and your doubts, because I didn't just come right out and speak what was on my mind. My momma used to say that a person should never go to bed mad. That it was better to get things off your chest and out in the open right away, and not give them time to fester. Doubt and uncertainty breed faster than mosquitoes, and they can itch at you and worry you worse than a mosquito bite. So..." She spread her arms wide. "Either slap this mosquito or give her a hug. Because I can't go to sleep until this thing is settled."

I held out my arms and Jonetta gathered me in. Gently, tenderly, the way you might hug a small child or a fragile old aunt. I thought I heard a collective sigh from the others. Then they all filed out, leaving me alone. There wasn't much time left for sleeping, but when I pulled up my blanket, I fell instantly into a sleep too deep for dreams.

 

 

 

Chapter 34

 

When I got down to the lobby to check out, limping and aching and barely able to drag my suitcase behind me, I found Bernstein slumped in a chair, sound asleep, recognizable even from a distance by that distinct pile-of-laundry look he had. Despite being physically tattered and worn, I was feeling reasonably benevolent toward the human race, so I figured, since he was there, that I'd do the polite thing and say good-bye, even though it meant waking him up. After I'd dealt with the paperwork, and before I summoned a taxi, I stood a few feet from him and softly called his name. He came awake instantly and unfolded himself and rose to his feet as stiffly as Frankenstein's monster.