Murder at Waters Edge (Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Book 6) Page 11

  I let out a sigh of relief. For the first time we might actually have the upper hand.

  Chapter 13

  It was late afternoon by the time we returned to the resort. Zak and Shredder were busy working on the computers, but Zoe was nowhere in sight. I took a quick shower before dressing in clean clothes, then went back to the common area. Luke had joined Zak and Shredder at the computers.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as I headed into the kitchen for something to drink.

  Luke stopped what he was doing to say, “It looks like two of the four teams didn’t complete the hack, so we’re down to two teams in the competition.”

  I walked over to stand behind Luke, placing a hand on his shoulder before I spoke. “Zak knew Trent and Hallie never jumped in this morning; who else?”

  “Hulk and Cracker.”

  I remembered they’d dived in right away that morning but at some point begun to meander in directions Zak couldn’t immediately explain. “Do you think they weren’t skilled enough to do what was asked of them?”

  Zak shook his head. “No. Cracker could have gotten in if he wanted to, but for some reason he stopped. I’m guessing once he realized he was hacking into an actual military facility he changed his mind and bailed.”

  I supposed that made sense. If I didn’t know the NSA was informed and we had their permission to continue, I would have bailed this morning too.

  “Do you think the members of the two teams who didn’t complete the hack are in any danger?” I asked.

  Shredder stopped what he was doing to turn to me. “Maybe,” he answered honestly. “It occurred to me that one or more members of those teams could have gone to the authorities. It’s what I would have done had I been in the dark as they were, and I’m sure the event organizers know that as well. I hope everyone is okay, but I won’t be surprised in the least to find that Trent and Hallie and Hulk and Cracker have been detained until the conclusion of whatever the endgame turns out to be.”

  “You think they could have been kidnapped?”

  Shredder nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. I went by their room shortly after we realized they’d failed to complete today’s hack. No one answered their door. Zoe looked around the grounds and has checked the rooms several more times, but as of the last time she went by she hadn’t found a trace of any of the four contestants. I’ve been watching for their presence online but none of them have signed in since first thing this morning. At least not on their own computers or using their own accounts.”

  “Where’s Zoe now?”

  Zak paused and let out a long breath that sounded like a groan. “Out sleuthing of course.”

  “I’m going to go find her. We’ll bring back some dinner in a couple of hours.”

  I texted Zoe, who informed me that she was on the beach near the lifeguard tower. I trotted over to join her. The lifeguard must be off duty for the day because the tower was not only deserted but locked up, but there were still people lingering on the beach and in the water.

  “Congratulations on being the winning team today.” Zoe grinned as she hugged me.

  “Thanks to Zak, Luke and I had a huge head start.” I glanced at Zoe, who had on cutoff jeans and a white tank top. “Zak said you’ve been out sleuthing?”

  “Yeah, and I may have found something. See that man over there in the orange and brown swim trunks?”

  I glanced in the direction Zoe was indicating. “That’s Kenny.”

  “I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Anyway, when he first came down to the beach there was another man with him. They seemed to be arguing, so I stopped to watch. After a few minutes I realized I’d seen the other man lingering around over the course of the week. Now, he could be here on vacation, but there was something about the way he presented himself that seemed off.”

  “What do you mean, off?”

  “For one thing, he seems to be surgically attached to his phone. I’ve never once seen him without the thing plastered to his ear. For another, he seems to really focus his attention on whoever he’s watching.”

  “Watching?” I asked.

  “Every time I’ve seen him before today he’s been alone. He never seemed to do anything other than talking on that phone of his and staring at people. I think he might be a private eye who’s here to keep an eye on certain people. Kenny’s the only person I’ve seen him actually interact with. Of course it isn’t like I’m watching him 24/7, so who knows what he’s doing when I’m not around?”

  I looked up and down the beach and made a quick decision. “Let’s climb the ladder to the lifeguard tower and sit in the shade. It seems as good a place as any to explore this subject in more depth. I wanted to talk to you about a couple of the others as well.”

  Zoe followed me up the ladder and we settled in. I was used to sitting high above the crowd and enjoyed the vantage point the tower provided.

  “So about the guy you saw arguing with Kenny…did you recognize any of the other people he was watching?”

  “Some of them. The ones I knew were people I’d met who were in the original ten teams but have been eliminated. He never engaged any of the individuals he watched, just stood in the shadows and yacked on his phone. I bet he works for the event organizers. It seems his job is to keep an eye on things and then report back to whoever is behind this whole thing.”

  “I guess it makes sense that there would be someone assigned to keep an eye on everyone. It’s occurred to me on several occasions that the oversight for the contest seems to be almost nonexistent. I mean, there’s an entire team helping Team Honu and not one person has said a word about it.”

  “Yeah. I had the same thought. It seems to me the event organizers are after something specific and the game is just a smoke screen. I doubt they plan to be around to award anyone the million dollars on Sunday.”

  “Agreed. Ivan and Irina are the only ones left other than us, and for all we know they could be involved in whatever’s going on. If they aren’t I suppose we should bring them up to speed. I have a feeling things are going to get a lot more dangerous.”

  “We’ll talk to the guys about it when we get back.”

  I leaned back and rested my weight on my hands behind me. “Did you ever track down Hulk and Cracker or Trent and Hallie?”

  “No. I went back to each room five times but they were always deserted.”

  “They could have been inside, just not answering,” I pointed out.

  “No, the rooms were empty. I lifted a master key from one of the housekeepers and let myself in. Trent and Hallie’s room was totally empty. Not only were they not there, all their things were gone. You said the contestants were supposed to stay until the end of the competition, but it really looks as if they’ve split.”

  I frowned. “Did you notice anything else? Signs of a struggle?”

  “You’re thinking they were forcefully removed from their room when they refused to compete? That occurred to me too, so I looked around pretty thoroughly but didn’t find anything. I checked with the front desk and they said they haven’t checked out, but they’re certainly gone. My bet is that when they saw the hack this morning they suspected they were in danger and went into hiding.”

  I didn’t like the way things were unfolding one bit. “Did you break into Hulk and Cracker’s room as well?”

  Zoe nodded. “The place was a pigsty. There were dirty plates and empty takeout boxes everywhere. Unlike Trent and Hallie’s room, theirs looked and smelled good and lived in. All their possessions, except their computer, were still in the room. It looked as if they’d just stepped out, but as far as I can tell, they haven’t been back to the room all day.”

  I looked out over the open sea. The resort was set on a wide beach that provided the perfect backdrop for the large waves that rolled onto the shore. I tried to relax and free my mind from assumptions and preconceptions as I considered what to do next. If Trent and Hallie had gone into hiding I couldn’t blame them. I had a feeling the
rest of us were all in danger to a certain degree. Ivan and Irina and Team Honu had gone along with the hack and I figured that had bought us time before we were expendable, but I wasn’t certain about the life expectancy of the others.

  I narrowed my gaze as my eyes caught something floating on the water in the distance. “Do you see that?” I pointed to it.

  “I see something, but it’s too far away to make out what it is.”

  I wished I had my binoculars. “It may be something that fell from a boat, but I suddenly have a bad feeling. Wait here. I’ll swim out to check it out.”

  “Okay, but be careful. If your bad feelings are anything like mine you probably aren’t going to like what you find.”

  I didn’t have on a swimsuit, but my shorts and tank were fine to swim in and didn’t weigh me down much. I slipped off my flip-flops and headed into the water. I tried to hone in on the location of the object, which seemed to be drifting farther out to sea, before I put my head down and began to swim in earnest. It had been a while since I’d had the chance to take a long-distance swim and I found the steady rhythm of my strokes served to calm and focus me. I still had no idea exactly what was going on, but I knew enough to be sure that if there really was actual danger involved, it was going to rear its ugly head within the next twenty-four hours.

  I stopped swimming for a while and stuck my head up out of the water to look around. The object had drifted farther out than I’d anticipated it would. There must be a strong tide in the area. I debated whether to just turn around when I realized that the something I’d seen was a someone . I put my head down and continued at full speed. Unfortunately, by the time I reached Hulk it was much too late to do anything other than tow his body back to the beach.

  ******

  “Hey, John.” I hugged my oldest brother when he showed up on the beach in response to my call.

  “What in God’s name are you doing here?”

  I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “Vacationing.” I turned toward Zoe. “This is my friend Zoe. She’s visiting from the mainland.”

  “I’m happy to meet you,” John said to her before turning back to me. “So what happened?”

  “Zoe and I were sitting on the lifeguard tower talking. I noticed something floating on the water, so I decided to swim out to check it out. It was Hulk. It looks like he’s been shot in the back.”

  John looked down at the man who was lying on the sand. “You know this man?”

  “Sort of. He was a contestant in the Brains and Brawn Race taking place at the resort. I’ve never really spoken with him, but I know who he was.”

  “Do you have any idea how he ended up in the water?”

  “Maybe from a boat?”

  “I meant if you knew who killed him.”

  I hesitated. I knew the NSA didn’t want to involve the local PD at this point, but I didn’t want to lie to my brother either. “I don’t know who killed him,” I answered. That much was true. I had a feeling his death had to do with the competition, but I didn’t know specifically who’d killed him.

  John jotted down a few notes before asking about Luke. I didn’t necessarily want John going over to the cottage and finding our command center, so I told him I’d just text Luke to come down to the beach. John questioned Luke, Zoe, and me for about thirty minutes, until the medical examiner arrived, requiring his attention. He told me that we could go but that he’d call me later, so I smiled at him and led my friends back to the cottage.

  “Your brother seems nice,” Zoe commented as we walked along the pathway.

  “He is. He can be a bit too serious at times, but he’s a good guy and we generally get along okay when he isn’t treating me like a five-year-old.”

  “Do you see him often?”

  “Yeah. My mom insists on family dinners at least once month, so I see him that often at a minimum. John isn’t married and doesn’t have a significant other to spend time with, so he comes over to Oahu to hang out with my brothers as well. Sometimes they let little sis tag along.”

  “It’s really nice that you have such a close family.”

  I smiled. “Yeah. It really is.”

  Once we arrived at the cottage I went in to shower and change my clothes once again while Zoe ordered dinner and the guys gathered around the dining table on the lanai. By the time I came out they were deep into a discussion about what might have happened to Hulk and where Cracker might be. I asked Shredder if I should call John back to tell him everything we knew and suspected, but he wasn’t sure. Finally, we decided Shredder would call whoever he was working with at the NSA to see what they wanted us to do.

  “I feel like we should be looking for Cracker,” Zoe said. “If he isn’t dead already he might really be in trouble. The people behind this competition are obviously serious players with a significant agenda. If they killed Hulk and Cammy, I’m sure they won’t hesitate to kill again.”

  “We should try to track down Trent and Hallie as well,” Zak suggested. “Even if they’re in hiding they may still be in danger.”

  Wow. Just wow. I’d come to the island to investigate the death of my friend’s sister. At the time, given my past activities, it seemed a reasonable thing to do, but now not only did we have a second body, but there was at least one person missing, and we were involved in something so important that it was of interest to the NSA. I felt like I’d started off in a Nancy Drew story and ended up in a James Bond thriller. Now all we needed was a car chase and an order from our superiors to shoot to kill and we’d have completed the segue.

  “Look, guys,” I finally said, “we need a plan. There are too many things going on. Do we try to find out what happened to Hulk or do we look for Cracker? And if Trent and Hallie have left the resort they really could be anywhere. Chances are they’re still on the island, but finding them won’t be easy. And then there’s the whole endgame thing we really should be on our toes about. How are we supposed to prioritize?”

  Shredder stood up. “I’m going to make a call to the people I consult with. I think at this juncture we need some additional direction.”

  As much as I like to be in the driver’s seat, letting the NSA decide what we should do sounded pretty darn good to me. In the meantime I went into the cottage and grabbed a six pack of beer. The food would be here soon and after the long day we’d had, sipping a cold one might be just the thing we all needed to take a step back and refocus our minds.

  I knew the endgame we’d predicted was coming down the pike was important, but there wasn’t much we could do about it until the following day. I’d come to Maui to investigate Cammy’s death, but until I’d found Hulk’s body I’d pretty much allowed myself to believe the wild pig had startled her from the cliff. Now I’d changed my mind again. And then there was Cracker. He might very well be dead too, but if he wasn’t perhaps he’d been kidnapped and was at this very moment in grave danger. My instinct told me that if he’d been kidnapped he’d most likely still be close by. His computer wasn’t in his room. Maybe Zak could track it using the device I’d often seen used to find people in the movies.

  Dinner arrived shortly after Shredder and I returned to the others. We took a few minutes to distribute the food before resuming our conversation.

  “According to the person I’m working with,” Shredder began, “the NSA believes the competition is no longer the vehicle by which the organizers are planning to reach the endgame. As it turns out, Cracker isn’t just another talented hacker. He’s second only to Zak as the most talented hacker in the country. The NSA believes that when he refused to continue with the game the organizers changed course and kidnapped Cracker and his partner.”

  “What do they want us to do?” I asked.

  “Find Cracker. The local police have been informed of his disappearance, although they haven’t been filled in on everything else that’s going on, and that’s the way the NSA wants to keep it for now. My source also believes the people who have Cracker may have Trent and Hallie as well. It’s
his opinion that when they refused to play the game they were picked up immediately and taken to a predetermined location for detainment.”

  “Hulk probably fought back and ended up dead for his efforts,” I commented.

  “Hulk suffered a single gunshot wound to his back. He hadn’t been in the water long. The four of them have been missing all day, so it looks like he was initially detained and later killed, probably as part of a persuasion tactic to get Cracker to cooperate.”

  “So what now?” I repeated.

  “We’re going to finish our dinner and then we’re going to try to track down the others,” Shredder said. “Zak will try to get a location on the missing laptops. He’s been hacking into them all week, so he should be able to locate them if they’re connected to the internet. Lani, you and Zoe can go back to Trent and Hallie’s and Hulk and Cracker’s rooms. Take another look around. Maybe there’s something you missed. You didn’t know Hulk was dead when you were there earlier and now that you do, maybe something will click for you. Luke,” Shredder turned to look at him, “start digging around into the company behind the competition. Look for any public records, no matter how insignificant. Even an electric bill will tell us something. We’ll all meet back here in two hours for an update.”

  “And what about you?” I asked.

  “I need to see a man about a weapon. Don’t worry, I won’t be gone long. Once we determine what information we do and don’t have access to we can come up with a plan.”

  Chapter 14

  Zoe and I went to Trent and Hallie’s room first. We figured it would be the easiest to search because it was empty. We opened and closed every drawer, looked in the closet, under the beds, and even in the shower. We were careful in our exploration but didn’t find anything other than a Milky Way wrapper and a half-used bar of soap in the bathroom. We didn’t find anything that would explain where they were, but we were heartened that there weren’t any signs of a struggle. Maybe they really had left before anyone had the chance to detain them.