Maui Madness (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 7) (19 page)

“Maybe we should ask Ke
oke about it,” Red Dress suggested. “He seems to have his finger on the pulse of any development happening in the Islands. If anyone would know what is going on, it would be him.”

“I heard
that Anton asked Keoke to invest in his latest project, but Keoke turned him down,” the woman holding the teacup poodle said. “I don’t think the two men really got along, although Keoke isn’t one to make his feelings known, if you know what I mean.”

“
I do know what you mean,” Yellow Hat replied. “And it makes sense that Keoke and Anton might not get along. Keoke and Luke are good friends. Have been for a long time. I think Keoke hoped Leia would marry Luke, and then she went and got engaged to some man she’d known for two minutes. It would never have worked out in the long run. I don’t know what Leia was thinking.”

“Anton was a good
-looking man. And he was rich,” Purple Blouse pointed out.

“Oh
, posh.” Yellow Hat snickered. “A man like Anton could never keep Leia satisfied. Luke is a much better man.”

“I do feel bad for Luke,”
Red Hat said.

“As you should
.” Yellow Hat nodded. “The poor man has been pining after Leia for years, and based on the amount of time they’d been spending together, it looked like Leia might actually be starting to return his affection. Luke was devastated when Anton swooped in from nowhere and swept Leia off her feet.”

“It seems that there may be more going on than meets the eye,” Poodle
Lady said.

“Some people are saying that Keoke
. . .” Red Dress lowered her voice as she began to speak.

“So what do you think?” Zak asked me
, interrupting my snooping at what I was sure was a key point in the conversation.

I looked at Zak and frowned. I hadn’t been listening to a word the men at our table were saying
, so I had no idea what he was asking. All three men were staring at me like they expected an answer of some sort.

“Sailing? Tomorrow?” Zak clarified.

“I guess I should check with Levi and Ellie. I did leave Charlie with them,” I reminded him.

“Guess we’ll have to let you know,” he informed the men.

By the time I
’d tuned back in to their conversation, the women were talking about some fund-raiser that was scheduled to take place the following month. I’d give quite a lot to know how that sentence had ended. Some people are saying that Keoke
what
?

One of these days
, I’m going to start listening to that little voice in my head that warns me that my current inclination might not be the best overall strategy. Apparently, however, tonight wasn’t going to be that night. Not that it hadn’t been a perfectly lovely day. We’d dined on the best food money could buy, watched a fantastic fireworks show over the ocean after dark, and spent a fun-filled day talking to the new friends we’d met thanks to Zak’s extroverted nature. I was exhausted by the time we’d finally made it to bed and should have slept soundly but ended up tossing and turning as minutes turned to hours.

I finally decided to get
up at 2:13. How do I know that it was precisely 2:13? Because I glanced at the digital clock beside the bed as I quietly unwrapped myself from Zak’s arms and pulled on a robe. I tried to tell myself that my only intention was to make my way to the kitchen with the idea of procuring a glass of water, but even as I silently opened the door leading to the hallway and tiptoed into the silent corridor, I knew in my heart that the tossing and turning I’d been experiencing all night was due to an overactive mind.

Judge Gregor, Brian Boxer, and Trenton Baldwin had been kidnapped
and led to believe that there were additional captives in other locations. The men seemed to think that whatever was going to happen to them would occur on Monday, after the new judge handed down his verdict on the injunction Judge Gregor had issued in the first place.

Anton seemed the most likely to benefit from the change in decision
, but he was dead. He’d been murdered by someone at the luau Zak’s friend Keoke had thrown to celebrate Anton’s engagement to Leia, Pono’s sister. Pono was the prime suspect because he’d not only helped Keoke to prepare the pig but had argued with Anton on the day of the murder and disappeared shortly thereafter. He was also the individual responsible for bringing forward the injunction in the first place.

In my mind
, everything seemed to come back to Pono or Keoke, or both. I didn’t want to believe that either man was responsible for the events of the past few weeks, but I realized that I needed to quell my curiosity about a statement Zak had made: Keoke was an investor. He invested money, big money, in projects like Anton’s. If he had invested in the project—and I had to keep in mind that I didn’t have any actual knowledge of that at this point—then Keoke stood to lose a lot of money if the injunction wasn’t overturned.

Desperate men have been known to take desperate measures.

I walked down the hall as quietly as my bare feet would allow. The house was dark and I didn’t hear evidence of any other late-night insomniacs. I carefully made my way down the stairs to the first floor. My intention, I realized, even if I still clung to the lie I’d told myself about needing a drink of water, was not to quench my thirst but to get a look at Keoke’s office.

I hoped there wasn’t some sort of alarm system that was going to announce to the world that once again Zoe Donovan was sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. I hated to think of Zak’s disappointment in me if he were ever to find out that I suspected our host
, his friend, of such heinous crimes.

I tiptoed quietly across the living
-room floor, then paused briefly to decide which hallway to take. One ventured toward the front of the house, while the other led to rooms at the rear. I had no way to determine which closed door could be Keoke’s office and I hated to start opening doors, especially should one or more lead to bedrooms with sleeping occupants.

If this were my house and I was going to select a room to use as a home office
, I’d select a room with a view. Based on what I could work out in my head based on the layout of the property and the proximity of the house to the ocean, I was fairly certain that the hallway to the left would afford the best views. Now, to figure out which of the three doors to open . . . The room to the right would be an interior room, while the one on the left should have ocean views. The room at the end of the hall, however, should have the best views of all.

The room was dark and I didn’t want to turn on any lights
that could alert anyone else who might be awake to my presence. I scooted across the room toward the window as I tried to avoid stubbing a toe on the hardwood furniture. I’d been correct in my assumption about the view; it was spectacular. I turned from the window and scooted back toward the desk. I was preparing to shuffle through the paperwork piled on one side when I heard voices in the hallway. I frantically looked around for a place to hide as two men paused outside the door. At first I couldn’t make out anything they were saying, but then I figured out they were talking about someone being missing.

I ducked under the desk
, which, in retrospect, was a ridiculous place to hide. If one of the men in the hall was Keoke and he came in the room to get something from his desk, he couldn’t help but notice me curled up in the space where his feet would normally rest.

My heart thundered in my chest and my breath grew
heavy as I waited for the men to either come in and discover my presence or, much better, leave. After what seemed like hours but was most likely only a few minutes, I heard footsteps retreating down the hallway.

The s
mart thing to do at this point would be to sneak back to the bedroom Zak and I were using before anyone discovered my presence in Keoke’s private space. Of course, no one has ever accused me of going for the smart thing, so I crawled out from under the desk and began sorting through the files as I’d originally intended.

There were files for several different projects Keoke was working on
, none of which looked to be the one Anton wanted to build. I began walking around the room, attempting to open file cabinets that were, naturally, locked. I should have realized that if Keoke was mixed up in Anton’s mess, he wouldn’t leave evidence sitting out in plain sight for anyone to stumble upon.

I tried the desk drawers but found those inaccessible as well. I’d pretty much decided to head back to my room when I heard voices in the hall
way again. This time I ducked behind a bookshelf that was set at an angle in the corner of the room. For once, I was grateful I was small.

“I told you I had nothing to do with it
.” Keoke walked into the room with Anton’s friend Jeffrey on his heels.

“The only people who knew about the location w
ere you, me, Jimmy, Queenie, and Kingsley. Jimmy and Queenie swear it wasn’t them and I know it wasn’t me, so that just leaves you,” Jeffrey asserted.

Keoke sighed. I peeked around the corner of the cabinet to see if I could make out
whether there was anyone else in the room. Keoke looked stressed as he appeared to be formulating an answer. “We both know that I realize what is at stake,” Keoke tried to reassure the man. “Do you really think I’d do anything to put the people I love the most at risk? There has to be another explanation.”

I noticed that Jeffrey had a gun in his hand. He extended his arm to point it at Keoke
, and for the first time since I’d met him, I noticed the tattoo. “Kingsley thinks you were too soft to do what needed to be done. He thinks you waffled at the last minute and let the men go.”

Let the men go
. They must have realized that Judge Gregor and the others were no longer in the bunker.

“I didn’t let them go
, but I should have,” Keoke spat. “This whole thing has gotten totally out of hand. I never should have let it happen. Anton is dead, my grandparents are being held captive, we put three men in a bunker where they could have died, and for what? Money? I want you and your goons out of my house.”

“We ain’t going nowhere. Anton made promises he couldn’t keep
, and you know what happened to him.”

“If you are going to shoot me
then shoot me,” Keoke said.

Jeffrey laughed. “I’m not going to shoot you. Much too easy. If you don’t do what I tell you
, I will torture and then kill your precious grandparents. We have a deal and I expect you to uphold your end of it.”

Keoke sat down at his desk. He put his head on his arms
, which he’d folded on the hardwood. It seemed that I hadn’t been wrong after all in my assumption that Keoke was involved; what I hadn’t known was whether he’d been a willing participant or merely a pawn.

“What do you want me to do
?” Keoke surrendered.

“Gregor and the others are no longer in the bunker
, but they haven’t returned home either, and there isn’t any chatter about them being rescued. My guess is that someone moved them. I still think it has to have been you. I know that you were worried about what we’d do with them after the injunction is overturned on Monday. I want the men brought to me by eight o’clock tomorrow morning or Grandma and Grandpa are toast.”

“I don’t know where they are,” Keoke pleaded. “You have to believe me. I haven’t left the island all day
; you can ask around. I should be able to put together enough eyewitnesses to prove that what I’m telling you is true.”

“Even if you didn’t leave
, it doesn’t mean you didn’t hire someone to handle it. Maybe those kids you have staying at your guesthouse? We saw them out by the island a few days ago.”

“The
y aren’t involved. They’ve been diving in the area and have found some relics there. That’s all, I promise.”

“That little one is a r
eal annoying type. A real snoop.”

I am not.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she isn’t involved in this whole thing somehow,” Jeffrey continued. “I saw her sneaking around your grandparents’ place and asking a lot of questions on the day of the luau.”

I was
not
snooping around.
Okay, maybe briefly, after Anton’s body was found. But I wasn’t obvious about what I was doing, and I wasn’t asking a lot of questions. That man is such a liar.

“
I wanted to off her right then, but I let you talk me out of it.”

Yikes.

“If she and her friends have my bait, you are both going to end up in the pit,” Jeffrey warned.

“I
invited them to the party as you requested,” Keoke said. “They have been on the island all day, and they stayed over as well. There is no way they could have freed the men. Something else must be going on.”

“Maybe they let them go yesterday.”

“You were there yesterday,” Keoke pointed out.

“Maybe they came by after we left.”

Keoke took a deep breath. “They are visitors to the Islands. They don’t know the kidnapped men. How would they even know to look for and rescue them?”