Dying for a Daiquiri (27 page)

I looked around for Ritz. Stacey Leung-Crawford was formally interviewing the Koffee Land owner. No point ruining this wonderful publicity-filled moment for Ritz. Even if one of his employees was a caffeine crook.

I spun around looking for Victor. He stood by the zip-line, talking to Henry.

“Regan, why don’t you and I speak with Victor,” I said. “Give him an opportunity to explain himself. Maybe there’s a logical explanation for what he’s done. Tom, could you keep Henry occupied until Detective Lee gets here?”

Tom frowned. “I’m not obstructing an official investigation.”

“I’m not asking you to interfere with the investigation, although they haven’t done such a great job so far.” I pulled my cell out of my purse. “See, there’s nothing from, oh…crap,” I said, noticing Lee had indeed called. I’d forgotten to turn the mute off this morning. I listened to Lee’s voice mail. He and a couple of officers were en route and should arrive around eleven. I checked my watch. Ten minutes to eleven.

“Detective Lee should be here any minute,” I told Tom. “I’m sure he’d be grateful if you could detain Henry until he arrives.”

“I’ll come with you,” my mother said to Tom.

“You’re not going anywhere near Henry,” Tom said. “Your husband, my former partner, would have my badge if I put you in any danger. Why don’t you and Stan go back to the visitor center and wait for Lee and his men. You can direct them so they don’t waste time trying to locate us.”

Isn’t it amazing what a rational plan you can come up with when a real detective is involved?

Tom, Regan and I left the pavilion, passing by an array of cameras, computers, and other equipment, none of which I could name, but all of which required long thick black cords extending to the electrical outlets in the pavilion. Five contestants were sequestered in one area along with two of the Koffee Land guys who’d worked on the zip-line. Those girls must be zip-lining with Jacques today. As we walked up the hill, the scenery once again blew me away. The view from above would be jaw-dropping. In my case, since I’m afraid of heights, it would also be stomach-dropping.

Deep in conversation, Henry and Victor didn’t notice us approaching until we were almost on top of them. Henry looked up first. He held up his hand, signaling to Victor to be quiet.

“Can we help you?” Henry wore his perpetual frown. At least he wasn’t yelling for a change. If Henry was Keiki’s murderer, he was certainly the crabbiest killer I’d ever encountered.

“Tom was curious about the zip-line operation,” Regan said. “He wondered if you could show it to him before the contestants begin their rides.” When Henry looked annoyed, she elaborated. “Ritz would be grateful if you would take the time to assist his guests.”

Throwing Ritz’s name into the equation worked its desired magic. Henry could hardly refuse a request from his employer. He told Victor he’d catch up with him later, then motioned Tom to follow him up the four flights of stairs to the platform above.

“I guess I’ll return to my office,” Victor said, “I’ve got some paperwork to do.”

“How’s Kiana doing?” I asked.

He shrugged. “How do you think she is doing? She buried her daughter at sea yesterday.”

“That must have been so rough on you, especially after Joey’s fall from the tower.” I shifted my gaze to the zip-line tower where Henry and Tom chatted. Tom pointed to something on the other side of the wide canyon.

Victor reached into his shirt pocket then realized it was empty. “I left my cigarettes in my car. I’ll see you later, Regan.”

I stepped in front of Victor before he could disappear. “Have you been stealing coffee beans from Koffee Land?”

He started. “Did Keiki tell you that?”

“No, I barely knew her, but I was in your garage yesterday.”

He flinched and took a step back. “What were you doing there?”

“I offered to make some fresh coffee for your guests at the reception. Kiana told me the beans were in the pantry, but when I couldn’t locate the pantry in the house, I went into the garage and discovered your secret room.”

“Dammit,” he grumbled, “that room was supposed to be locked.”

“Laurel told me there were at least a hundred bags of beans,” Regan said, “all in Koffee Land bags. How did they get there and why are you storing them?”

Victor looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a very big truck. Off in the distance I heard the sound of a siren. So much for Detective Lee’s discreet arrival.

Victor glanced toward Henry and Tom who were climbing down from the tower. They had almost reached the bottom of the stairs.

I tilted my head and stared at the tower platform high above us. It was a long way to fall. Joey would have been cautious working so high, especially if he was by himself. But what if he wasn’t alone? What if someone he trusted stood next to him?

Not his boss. But what about the father of the girl he’d dated for several years. A man who’d been like a father figure to him. Someone he trusted and admired.

Someone he’d discovered stealing from his employer.

What would Joey have done?

And what did Victor do?

Victor’s eyes met mine. I froze as he grew stone-faced, his eyes as hard and bleak as lava rock. As multiple sirens blared, I relaxed my tense shoulders. Regan and I had Victor cornered. There was nothing he could do now.

Except grab my wrist with his left hand and twist it behind my back. His right hand was also busy.

Aiming a gun at my head.

“Victor,” Regan screamed. Without a second’s hesitation, Victor performed some elaborate move with his leg, knocking her to the ground. She lay motionless.

“Regan,” I yelled and tried to reach her. My movement prompted a whack on the side of my head.

“Ow.” A tiny rivulet of blood seeped into my copper strands, ruining my first good hair day since we’d arrived in Hawaii.

When Tom saw the commotion, he bypassed the last six stairs and leapt to my rescue. Once on the ground, he realized nobody was messing with Victor. Not when he had a gun pressed to my perspiring forehead.

“Victor, what are you doing?” Henry yelled, as he went to help Regan up off the ground.

I wanted to ask the same question, but the gun-in-my-skull approach turned out to be the one surefire method of shutting me up.

Victor pushed me in front of him but kept his weapon glued to the back of my head. Once we were a reasonable distance from Tom and Henry, he shoved me around to face the distant pavilion. That’s when I realized we were also facing the troops.

Detective Lee, dressed in his usual Tommy Bahama apparel, strode up the hill with at least a dozen uniformed officers. There would be no escape for Victor in that direction without a shootout.

No one had asked for my opinion, but I wasn’t big on the shootout option.

Behind what looked like the entire Hawaii Police Department, a contingent of television cameras filmed all the action, including Victor and me. The bevy of contestant beauties giggled and strutted, not fully clued in to the fact that this reality show had turned into
Law and Order
, the hostage version.

With all exits blocked, there was only one direction for Victor to go.

Up!

Victor kneed me in the back and I lurched up the stairs. My red sneaker slipped off my left foot and landed on the ground. Darn. That was my comfiest shoe. He’d better let me pick it up later.

On second thought, would there be a later? What was Victor’s plan or did he even have one? As I stumbled up the stairs, with a gun inches from my back, a myriad of possibilities whirled through my brain. None of them featured a good ending.

By the time we reached the tower platform, Victor was breathing hard––either from stress, or the forty-five steps we’d just climbed. Trust me. I’d counted each one. It might be time for Victor to lay off the nicotine.

As he wheezed to catch his breath, I inched a few feet away. The gun remained leveled at my head. I could sense Victor’s brain churning in an attempt to formulate an escape plan. I decided to distract him.

“Victor,” I said, “I know you killed Joey. But I don’t believe you meant to.”

His eyes filled with sorrow. “No, I only walked up here to talk to him, alone. Keiki had called me the night before and said Joey was concerned about me. She didn’t elaborate so I didn’t know how much Joey had confided in her. I knew he saw me taking bags of coffee out of the warehouse when he worked late one night.”

“You wanted to explain to him your reasons for the theft?”

He nodded and the gun bobbled slightly. “Joey was like a son to me. His father died when he was a young kid. I thought he would be sympathetic once he realized I had no choice but to take the beans since the beetle destroyed my own crops. I did it for my family.” Victor swung his free hand out, demonstrating the size and magnificence of Koffee Land. “It’s not like Ritz would notice the loss. Or even care about the quality of the beans. All he and Pilar care about is fame.”

A voice blaring out of a megaphone filtered its way to the top of the tower.

“Come down now. Before anyone is hurt.”

Victor shook his head.

“We have sharpshooters posted across the grounds. Release your hostage now.”

Sharpshooters? I didn’t like the sound of that. Neither did Victor as he shoved me in front of him. Despite his heavy panting, the distance between the gun and my head had not widened.

Victor stared at the crowd far below then yelled at Henry who stood off to the side. Henry pointed a finger at himself and mouthed something. He walked over to Detective Lee and grabbed the megaphone.

“Victor, come down, please,” Henry said. “Don’t do this to your family.”

With his left hand, Victor motioned for Henry to climb the tower. Detective Lee, Henry, and my own personal detective consulted. Then Henry started the long climb up.

“Are you letting me go?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

This was a heck of a time for Victor to go all inscrutable. Henry reached the top of the platform and threw his arms out as if to hug Victor. His father-in-law responded in a less familial manner by leveling the gun at him.

“Victor, what’s going on? That detective said you killed Joey and Keiki? That’s crazy.”

“I could never kill my daughter,” Victor said, “and that’s how I always thought of Keiki. As my daughter. Joey’s fall was an accident, but the detective is right. It was my fault. I came up here to discuss a personal matter with him. When Joey wouldn’t listen, I grew frustrated and shoved him.”

His eyes clouded over. “I’ll never forget the sound of his scream. I raced down the stairs. When I reached the bottom of the tower, I could tell he was dead. It was too late to help him. So I left. Left Joey there to be discovered the next morning.”

“It’s not too late to confess to the police,” I said. “They’ll understand it was an accident. As for Keiki…”

“I didn’t kill Keiki,” Victor screamed. His eyes bulged, and for a minute, I thought they would pop out of their sockets. Lee shouted via the megaphone once again.

“Enough of this,” Victor said. “Henry, strap her into that harness and attach her to the line at the far right. Once she’s clamped in, you can climb back down. Then it will be my turn. For now, I need her as my hostage.”

“But…” I started before Victor shushed me.

“Do all hostages talk this much?” he muttered, watching as Henry attempted to get me into the zip-line harness, not the easiest task when dealing with a full-figured woman.

Henry finally succeeded in buckling me in. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of tan gloves and handed them to me.

I stared at them in confusion.

“Put them on,” he said. “You’ll need them.”

“Stop talking to her,” commanded Victor. “You can go back down.”

“Please,” Henry pleaded. “Let us help you.”

Victor shook his head. “It’s too late for me now. Just tell…,” he hesitated and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Tell my daughter and Kiana I love them.”

Henry sighed and disappeared down the stairs. With his exit, any hope that Victor might release me, disappeared.

Trapped in my harness, I was a tiny––okay not that tiny––pawn in this entire drama.

I swiveled my head left. “Victor, please don’t do anything you might regret.” Which by my definition would include anything involving his gun and me.

He glared. “No wonder you’re still single. Do you ever stop talking?”

Geez. Someone woke up on the wrong side of his bed. But where would Victor wake up tomorrow? Did he have an exit strategy? And if so, how did I fit into his plan?

He began strapping himself into the harness on the zip-line running parallel to mine. The two lines were about six feet apart. With my torso hooked to the line, I couldn’t get out of the contraption without help, so I wasn’t a menace to Victor. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t shoot me if I provoked him. Apparently, his concept of provocation included my chatter.

Footsteps pounded up the stairs. The troops must have thought Victor was harmless now.

Crack! The sharp retort of Victor’s gun told them otherwise. I twisted to the right and peered down the steps. Uniformed officers crouched at the first and second landings. A brown-haired man, dressed in jeans and a white polo shirt lay on the stairs.

Victor shot Tom?

I screamed. Victor raced over to my side and shoved me. With my legs dangling in the air, I gasped as I began zipping above the valley WAY below. I shrieked loud enough for them to hear me in Sacramento.

My family and Tom’s faces flashed before my eyes as I soared through the air. My contacts watered as the treetops whizzed past in one giant green fuzzy blur. I vaguely remembered reading that the rider can control the speed of descent, but Henry hadn’t shown me how.

I zoomed above the canyon, afraid if I looked down I’d pass out. Eventually I would smack into the next tower’s platform, but no guide would be there to assist me. At the rate I sped toward the tower, it would be mere seconds before I crashed.