1 Murder on Moloka'i by Chip Hughes Read Free Book Online Page B

this seemed an appropriate place to discuss our potential murder case. As the cocktail waitress brought us Maui chips and took our order, I noticed the sweet sound of a slack-key guitar tune coming from the lānai’s small stage, backlighted by red-gold arcs of the setting sun.
    “So tell me,” Adrienne said while we waited for our drinks, “do you have enough evidence to indict Greg Parke for the murder?”
    “We have a ways to go before we can indict anybody, Adrienne. Parke included.”
    “I told you, no one would want to kill my sister more than her ex-husband.”
    “We’ll see. I have an interview Tuesday in L.A. with the travel agent who rode behind Sara when she fell. If anyone can provide us more clues, it’ll be him.”
    “How many witnesses besides the mule guide recognized Greg’s photo?”
    “Two. One admitted knowing him, the other didn’t.”
    “One lied?”
    I nodded. “The one who admitted knowing Parke is Milton Yu. He used to sell computers in Honolulu. Now he grows orchids on the Big Island, but that’s just a cover for pakalōlō. Yu may be deep into the drug trade, or just a small supplier.”
    “What could he have to do with Sara’s death?”
    “Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.”
    “And the witness who lied?”
    “Heather Linborg, a Maui masseuse. She winced when she saw Parke’s photo. It would be interesting to find out why.”
    The waitress appeared with two Chi Chis, tall goblets frothing like milkshakes. They even tasted like milkshakes, with a coconut and pineapple sweetness that masked double shots of vodka. I raised my glass to Adrienne, stifling the impulse to make a toast, since this was hardly a date. Our glasses clinked.
    “Let’s look at what we have so far.” I took a swallow of the icy drink and set my glass down. “If Parke had your sister murdered, who would he have hired to do it? And how would he have gotten the mule to cooperate?”
    “What about the mule guide?”
    “Kaluna’s a paniolo. I don’t think he’d harm a mule to kill anybody.”
    “And the doctor?”
    “Dr. Goto didn’t look like the type to handle mules. He told me he’d always wanted to do medical research at Kalaupapa, yet put off his first visit a dozen years. That makes me wonder. Though I doubt he conspired with Parke.”
    “Why not?” Adrienne sipped her Chi Chi.
    “Goto doesn’t know Parke. I could tell by his response to the photo.”
    “That leaves the Californian. Archibald has got to be the one.”
    “We can’t write off the others just yet. Yu and Linborg both know Parke, and both are hiding something. Which reminds me, Yu said Sara planned to give a lecture at a health food store in Kaunakakai that same night. Any idea what that would have been about?”
    “Sara gave public lectures all the time,” Adrienne replied coolly. “She didn’t bother to tell me the subject of each one.” Adrienne turned her chilly gaze to the dying sunset, as if she was searching for something.
    That was an unexpected response to what I thought was an innocuous question. I watched Adrienne’s frozen expression, but it didn’t change. I swallowed the last of my Chi Chi and ordered two more when the waitress passed by. Then I remembered a burning question I had neglected to ask Adrienne on our first meeting.
    “When did you last speak with Sara?”
    Adrienne kept looking into the twilight, as she sipped the last of her drink. “I can’t recall.”
    “A few days? A month?”
    She gazed down into her empty glass, then spoke in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. “Five years.”
    “Five years?” I stared at her. “You told me you and your sister were ‘very close.’”
    “We were close. But Sara was strong willed and so am I. Before she moved to Hawai‘i we had a disagreement.”
    “So you never came to the islands to see her?”
    “No.”
    “She never came to Boston to see you?”
    Adrienne shook her head.
    “And you never wrote or talked on the