Murder at Waters Edge (Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Book 6) Read online

  When exactly forty minutes had passed, Zak announced he was in. The guy really was a genius to be able to time it so precisely.

  “And the clue?” I asked.

  “There’s a cypher, followed by an equation.”

  I held up my hands. “Sorry; math isn’t my thing. Can you solve it?”

  Zak nodded and Luke volunteered to help.

  I left them to it and went out onto the lanai to call Bethany. She had texted earlier, asking me to call her as soon as I could. It was early in Seattle, so I expected whatever she wanted to talk about was important.

  “Hey Bethany; it’s Lani. What’s up?”

  “I spoke to Stone last night. At first he didn’t want to talk, but I was eventually able to convince him that he needed to help if he wanted us to figure out who pushed Cammy off the cliff.”

  “And…?” We didn’t have a lot of time; I hoped the urgency in my voice would get Bethany to the point.

  “He said Cammy didn’t get along with one of the other competitors, Irina. Apparently, they almost came to blows on several occasions. Stone thought they might have met at some point before the competition, but when Stone brought it up Cammy denied it.”

  “Why did Stone get the idea they’d met in the first place?” I asked.

  “Because Cammy seemed to hate Irina on sight, and based on the looks they exchanged, the feeling was mutual. He couldn’t find any reason for them to clash right off the bat, so he figured they’d brought whatever conflict they had in the past to the competition with them. And as soon as the contest began the rivalry intensified. Stone and Cammy and Irina and her partner were close enough in ranking to explain a natural competitiveness, but he can’t explain that initial dislike.”

  “That could be relevant,” I agreed. “I’ll ask around to see what I can find out. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. About the hacks. Stone didn’t understand everything Cammy told him, but she said some of them seemed to be real. He thought Cammy was becoming increasingly paranoid as the competition moved into the final stages and although he tried to assure her the event organizers wouldn’t have them hacking into real agencies or institutions, she wasn’t convinced.”

  “Did she tell him where any of the hacks she thought might be real led?”

  “She mentioned a few places early on. One was to get into the DMV to change the age on someone’s driver’s license and another was to hack into a bank to transfer money from one account to another.”

  “Money?” That seemed significant to me.

  “It was only twenty dollars. Stone said he told Cammy the bank and the DMV websites must be fake, part of the game. At first she agreed he was probably right, but as the competition continued she got more and more paranoid, and toward the end she stopped sharing the hacks with him. She’d give him the clue to the race part, but she completely shut him out of the details of the hack.”

  There seemed to be enough evidence to support both the real-hack and the rival-as-killer theories. I knew Zak and Luke would probably have the answer to the equation any minute, so I thanked Bethany for the information and promised to call her back later.

  “I spoke to Bethany,” I said, as I reentered the cottage. “She was able to convince Stone to fill us in on what he knows. Stone gave her two pieces of information that might be important. The first is that Cammy may have known Irina before the competition and the second is that Cammy seemed to think at least some of the hacks were real.”

  “I’m going to continue looking around on my computer while you and Luke handle the morning clue,” Zak said. “If some of the hacks are real we might be able to start narrowing in on a motive. As for today’s clue, the cypher produced numbers that, when fed into the equation, gave us what we believe are coordinates,” Luke told me.

  “Great. Coordinates to where?”

  Zak had a map of Maui up on the screen of one of the laptops. He pointed to a location that appeared to be near the entrance of the Iao Valley State Park.

  “We can get there,” I replied. “As long as we don’t have to actually climb the needle, we should be in fine shape.”

  “I have an app on my phone that will tell us the exact coordinates of our location,” Luke said. “We can use it when we get to the park and make any adjustments we need to focus in on the exact location.” I looked back at Zak. “We’ll text when we have the final clue.”

  Luke and I went out to his car and then began driving north. The valley where we were heading was lush and green and once served as the battleground for a great war between Kamehameha the Great of the big island of Hawaii and the chief of Maui. The battle was fiercely fought and so much blood was shed that it was said the water in the stream through the valley ran red. These days, the main attraction in the area was the Iao Needle, a tall, narrow mountain reaching 2250 feet above sea level. The needle was often shrouded in clouds that gave it an eerie feeling, reminding the casual visitor of the violence that once occurred in the valley below.

  Luke and I caught up on the events while he was in Texas as we went. Although I was taking the competition very seriously indeed, it was nice to have a chance to chat about inconsequential things as we drove along the mostly deserted highway. Luke told me about his new niece and I shared the news of the small group of friends we hung out with back home on Oahu.

  When we arrived at the parking area for the park Luke pulled into a space in the shade and we climbed out. He checked his phone, then pointed into the distance. “We need to head in that direction.”

  The coordinates took us to the place where most people believed the cave Chief Kaka’e once lived in total seclusion was. A large boulder called Ka Pili o Kaka’e stood in front of the cave entrance and supposedly made the chief invisible to his people. The boulder was no longer blocking the cave and few knew its current location, but the area was still considered a significant historical site.

  We began to look around for the next clue. As it turned out, this one was relatively easy to find: a hand-painted wooden sign that looked as if it had been recently nailed to a tree read Kuka‘emoku holds the clue.

  “Damn,” I said aloud.

  “We have a problem?” Luke asked.

  “Kuka‘emoku is the name of the summit of the needle.” I looked toward the tall peak. “It looks like we’re going climbing.”

  The climb was steep but doable. Luckily, Luke and I both were wearing sturdy shoes and had brought plenty of sunscreen and water. I was glad Zoe wasn’t with us. She was obviously fit and would normally have been able to make the climb with little problem, but she hadn’t looked all that good ever since she’d arrived. Unlike the previous day, when I’d only spotted two teams during the entire day, I saw several today. The team I’d identified as Ivan and Irina were on their way back to their car as we started up the needle. I was pretty sure they’d had the easy hack of the day.

  Also in front of us were Kenny and Kimmy, but only by a few minutes, and by the time we were halfway up I noticed four other people coming up behind us. In all I thought six of the remaining eight teams—including Team Honu—were at the needle at approximately the same time. I had no way of knowing if the other two were ahead of us or behind, but I wasn’t going to worry about that. By my calculations, we were somewhere in the middle of the pack today; all we needed to do was stay the course. To move forward we only needed to be sure our overall ranking at the end of the day was sixth or above.

  When we reached the summit we found a stone tablet with one word on it: ‘Ohe’o.

  “Looks like we’re headed back to Hāna,” I said, picturing the cool, clear water that awaited us there.

  “Hāna?” Luke asked.

  “‘Ohe’o is the Hawaiian name of the tourist attraction known as the Seven Sacred Pools.”

  Luke smiled. “Did you say pools?”

  I nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Thankfully, the trip down the mountain was much easier than the one up, so it wasn’t long before we were back on the road head
ed south.

  “I wasn’t aware the Seven Sacred Pools had a Hawaiian name,” Luke commented.

  “There are more than seven pools, depending on the water level at any given time, but the name seems to refer to a story about people being able to work their way back toward spiritual goodness by ascending from one pool to the next. The first pool, ‘Akahi, symbolizes inexperience, the second, Luakapu, relates to the lifting of restrictions. The third pool, ‘Ekolu, has to do with the road to perfection, the fourth, ‘Eha’eha, symbolizes longing, and the fifth, Laulima, represents the removal of error through reverence. The sixth pool, ‘Eono, symbolizes answering the call with a song in the heart.”

  “And the seventh pool?’ Luke asked.

  “Na Hiku represents the culmination of perfection.”

  “I’m impressed you remember all that,” Luke said, his eyes on the narrow, winding road.

  “I didn’t.” I held up my phone. “I remember the basic legend, but I Googled the rest.”

  Luke chuckled.

  “What I can tell you from personal experience is that the pools are wonderful to swim in. I doubt we’ll have much time, but a quick dip won’t take long.” I reached behind the seat and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. “Want one?”

  Luke nodded. “So, once we get there, where do we start? I’ve been to the pools. They cover a large area.”

  I paused before I answered. Luke had a point. Unlike the two earlier clues we’d received that day, the pools were more of a general area than a specific location that could be pinpointed. Unless we could narrow things down it would take a considerable amount of time to search the entire place, especially when we didn’t know exactly what we were looking for. “I don’t know exactly how we’re going to narrow things down, but I bet the next clue will be someplace that’s easily accessible. I learned that yesterday when I broke into a church only to find what I was looking for was on a tree outside.”

  “The top of the needle didn’t seem easily accessible to me,” Luke grumbled.

  “It was a difficult climb, but the clue wasn’t hard to find.”

  “True. There are at least a few teams ahead of us,” Luke pointed out. “Maybe we’ll catch a break and one of the other teams will point the way.”

  “Maybe, although it seems unlikely.”

  Chapter 7

  At the Seven Sacred Pools, we parked the car and then looked around. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone else from the race. The loop trail leading between the parking lot and the pools was short, maybe a half mile, so we set out to see what we could find. The water did look inviting, even though we were supposed to be involved in a race. After a bit of discussion, we stopped at one of the pools, took off our shoes, and dove in for a quick swim. We were wearing shorts and tank tops and it was a hot day, so we knew we’d dry fast. Besides, the water felt heavenly after our climb.

  I leaned back and floated on the surface of the cool water. There were a few wispy clouds, but other than that the sky was blue and clear. The scent created by the dense foliage tickled my nose and I could hear birds chattering in the distance, creating a jungle sound when combined with the many waterfalls.

  After our swim we completed the loop back to the parking area. There was a sign at the entrance I hadn’t noticed before. It appeared to be new, so I walked over to it. There were no words on it, just a photo of an old-fashioned airplane from the early part of the twentieth century.

  “Should we head to the airport?” Luke asked.

  I hesitated. A visit to the airport would fit, but the picture seemed specific. Why have a photo of such an old plane if the clue was telling us to go to a modern airport? “I don’t think so. While it seems logical, it doesn’t feel right.”

  “Do you have any other ideas?”

  “What do you think of when you see this plane?”

  “World War One. Fighter pilots. Snoopy.”

  “Snoopy?”

  “From the cartoon. You know, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown . Snoopy has this whole fighter-pilot fantasy going on in it.”

  I closed my eyes, picturing the scene from my childhood. I felt like there was a memory playing at the edge of my consciousness that I couldn’t quite grab hold of. I took out my phone and Googled WWI fighter plane and Maui . There were a lot of references to WWII but not a lot of references to the earlier war. Then I cross-referenced 1920s plane and Maui. “Charles Lindbergh,” I said aloud. “He’s buried on Maui not too far from here.”

  “Seems right,” Luke said. “What direction?”

  “Go toward Kipahulu.”

  Charles Lindbergh had lived on Maui at the end of his life and was buried at the Palapala Ho‘omanu Church, a small building with a steeple that immediately reminded me of my unnecessary climb the day before.

  “Let’s try Lindbergh’s grave,” I suggested.

  The gravesite was a raised mound with a flat headstone in the cemetery beside the church. It was a beautiful spot, with a manicured lawn and plenty of lush foliage. It didn’t take long to find it. I saw two cars pull into the parking area as we looked for the clue we needed. Hopefully, the third stop was the last one, as it had been yesterday.

  “We need to hurry,” I whispered to Luke. “Get Zak on the line so he can log on and punch in the answer to the day’s quest as soon as we figure it out.”

  There didn’t appear to be anything obvious at the grave. Maybe the clue was in the church. The teams behind us had headed in that direction. I wanted to be sure before I abandoned the grave, so I carefully searched the entire area.

  “Charles Lindbergh died in the nineteen seventies,” I said aloud.

  “Yeah. So?” Luke asked.

  “The headstone says he died in nineteen ninety-five. The stone must be a fake.”

  “Who would disturb a man’s final resting place for a contest?”

  I ran my hand over the headstone. “I don’t think the real one was removed. I think this is a fake on top of the real one. There seems to be a very thin stone set on top of another stone, which must be the real one. Tell Zak to enter 1995 in the computer.”

  I took a step back and held my breath. My heart pounded. If I’d guessed wrong we’d be eliminated for sure, and it would be that much harder to investigate Cammy’s death and the questionable hacks. It seemed like it took forever for Zak to come back on the line.

  “The code is good,” I heard him say. “We were the fifth team with the correct answer.”

  “Is it enough?” I asked. The whole thing depended on the cumulative total of the teams below us.

  “It’s enough.”

  I let out a long, loud breath before I flung myself into Luke’s arms. “Good job, partner.”

  “Good job to you too. Let’s head back. I need a shower and some food before we settle down for our strategy session this evening.”

  “Let’s hurry. The sooner we finish that, the sooner we can start the canoodling session.”

  Luke grabbed my hand and headed toward the car.

  ******

  The sun had set by the time we returned to the resort and settled in for the evening. As we had for other meals, we ordered room service and settled onto the lanai overlooking the ocean to eat. The fact that we had made it through the first two cuts left me with a feeling of satisfaction, though I had no idea how we were going to hang in until the end of the week. Zak was holding back, which meant there was room for improvement as far as start times, but I was giving it all I had and wondered if I would be up to the challenge as the competitor pool narrowed.

  “Who’s still in?” Luke asked Zak after our feeding frenzy had slowed to a more reasonable pace that allowed for conversation.

  “Kimmy and Kenny are still in first place, but their lead is diminishing. As with yesterday’s hack, they didn’t seem to be able to conquer it before it conquered itself and let them in. They actually checked in eighth today, but they had a large enough point total going in to maintain their position.”

 
; “Do you still think the plan is to eliminate them?” I asked.

  Zak nodded. “They lost a lot of points today. Another bad day tomorrow and they’ll fall out of first. My prediction that they’d be eliminated on Wednesday still feels right.”

  So far things were as I expected. I took a bite of my perfectly grilled salmon before asking Zak to continue.

  “Ivan and Irina are in second—by quite a lot. I’m thinking they’ll take the lead tomorrow unless something really unexpected occurs. Hulk and Cracker are in third and they seem to be holding steady in that position.”

  Zak paused as he took a sip of his wine. Zoe was sticking to water and salad, as she had since she’d arrived, but she seemed happy and energetic and her color had improved greatly. Maybe she’d just been jet-lagged after all.

  “In fourth place is a team that’s been hanging on at the back of the pack for some time. I guess they had a really good day. Their names are Trent Waller and Hallie Gold. He’s the brawn and holds several gymnastics titles. He was even on the national team. Hallie’s a student at MIT, studying cybercommunication. I was impressed by their credentials and was surprised they hadn’t done better to this point, but it occurred to me they may have been holding back until the final lap.”

  “It’s a sound strategy not to show all your cards until you need to,” Luke agreed.

  “I overheard some women talking about Trent when I went to the pool for a while this afternoon,” Zoe shared. “He’s not only a gymnast but competes in martial arts events as well. It sounded like he must be pretty good. I caught a glimpse of him in the lobby when they returned for the day and the guy is built. If he’s been holding back he might give us a run for our money.”