House of the Hanging Jade by A. Dianne Reade

Author:A. Dianne Reade [Reade, A. Dianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798987290149
Publisher: Pau Hana Publishing

CHAPTER 13

The next morning the police were back. They had follow-up questions for Liko and Barbie and me. They talked to Barbie first. I took a cup of coffee out to her on the lanai.

“But I don’t understand why you haven’t made an arrest yet,” she was saying. “It should be very simple. Aren’t there fingerprints on Dr. Caetano’s body?”

“We’re still working on that. In the meantime, we have a few more questions for you.” I poured Barbie’s coffee and returned to the kitchen.

My phone rang. I looked at the screen and sighed. Geoff again.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Kailani, it’s me. Geoff.”

“I know.” I refused to start any conversation with him, so I waited for him to speak.

“How’s Liko?”

I had to stop that line of questioning right away. “Enough. It’s none of your business.”

“So. I ran into someone you know yesterday.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Your boss.”

“Oh?”

“Didn’t he tell you?”

“No, he didn’t mention it.” Why let Geoff think he was a topic of conversation?

“Oh. I told him to give you my love. He didn’t say anything?”

“No.” He certainly hadn’t relayed that message, for which I was thankful.

“You busy today?”

“Yes. Very.”

“What are you doing?”

“Working. I have to clean the kitchen cupboards and check all the spices for freshness.” Since he owned a restaurant himself, I knew he could appreciate that sort of work, though I had no intention of doing either.

“Can that wait?”

“No, it really can’t. Dr. Graham-Kingsley asked me to do it today.” It was getting surprisingly easy to lie to Geoff, even though I didn’t like doing it.

“Can I come over? Just for a few minutes? I have something to ask you.”

“What do you want? Just ask me on the phone.”

“I’d rather ask you in person.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but it’ll have to be some other time.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“I heard you were attacked by a shark.”

“How did you hear that?” I asked sharply.

“This is a small town. Word gets around.”

A thought struck me suddenly. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before. “Geoff, did you move out of Kona? Are you staying in Hawi now?”

A little chuckle. “Yes. I felt I should be closer to you.”

A chill trickled down my spine and I shuddered. I didn’t know how to deal with this. I thought briefly of the police officer right in the house—I could ask him what to do. But I didn’t want to go to the police. It seemed an overreaction to an ex-boyfriend staying nearby.

“I’m afraid I don’t get up to Hawi much,” I told him. “I have so much to keep me busy here that I don’t really have time for anything else.”

“I’ll just have to come to you, then.” And he hung up.

A little knot of anxiety began to build in my stomach. I busied myself cleaning up the remainder of breakfast and decided that cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and going through the spices wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. I needed to stay busy, to stay away from my room where there was nothing to do but allow my thoughts to writhe and twist around themselves.

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