O'ahu Lonesome Tonight? (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series #5) (28 page)

She bit my
hand. It hurt.
A lot.
But instead of taking my hand
away I pushed down harder. I felt her jaw relax and her eyes started to waver.
She was running out of air.

In one fluid
motion I took my hand off her face and grabbed the gun. She sputtered and
coughed and rolled onto her side.

***

The police
arrived less than ten minutes after I called 9-1-1; the paramedics
came
a couple of minutes later.

They bundled
Barry up onto a gurney and started an IV. They tried to talk me into a ride to
the hospital but I convinced them I was fine.

“You should go
get a tetanus shot,” said a male EMT with eyes so blue I’m sure they were
contacts. I wondered if Hatch looked that handsome to the women he rescued.

I promised I
would. Then I called
Moko
.

“Hey, I got a
favor to ask,” I said. “Mind if I sleep on your sofa for a couple of nights? It
got late and I need to take some bride’s dresses back to Maui, but I can’t get
them from the shop until Monday morning.”

“Of course you
can stay
wit
’ us. But you won’t be sleeping on
no
sofa. Kiwi will give you his bed. He and his
bruddah
will love an excuse to camp out in the
livin
’ room.”

My next call
was to Wendi Takeda. “It’s a wrap,” I said. “We got Natalie. If you can meet me
at Starbucks I’ll tell you everything. You’ve probably got the Sunday edition
of the paper already put to bed. That’s a shame because I’ll bet Natalie’s
arrest makes tonight’s TV news. But you’re probably used to that, right? You
gotta
live with getting scooped when you’re totally old
school.”

“How long ‘til
you can get to Starbucks?” she said. “’
Cuz
I got two
words for you: online
buzzfeed
.
Nuthin
’
old school about it.”

CHAPTER 40

Farrah’s
Halloween wedding was the best one I’ve ever put on. Okay, maybe I’m a little biased.
I’ve loved the bride like a sister since second grade. When she walked down the
aisle of beach created by well-wishers separating to allow her to pass, I
thought she looked like every guy’s dream of the perfect wife. She was sweet,
mellow, and completely uncomplicated. She exuded a regal beauty—not only on the
outside, but even more so like a glow from the inside.

And her
incredible cleavage was nothing to sneeze at, either. It had taken three dress
alterations to get the sweetheart neckline just so. The first time it looked
like her boobs were exploding out of the top of the dress. The second time she
looked like someone had tucked a linen napkin under her chin. Finally, with the
third alteration it was perfect. There was no denying the ‘Earth Mother’
factor, but at least she didn’t appear to be auditioning for the Pamela
Anderson role in a new reality show called ‘Boob Watch.’

Ono appeared at
his captain-
ly
best. Of course there was a tiny bit
of green monkey when I saw him in his crisp white shirt with navy blazer and
khaki pants beaming at Farrah as she floated toward him and the flower-covered
altar. He wore a cute little captain’s cap that made his eyes look bluer than
the offshore waves and he’d even taken
Tomika
up on
her offer to have his hair cut by a ‘stylist’ and his usual scruff of beard
shaved by a barber at high-priced resort.

The day went by
so quickly I hardly remember most of it. But I definitely remember when Hatch
took me aside after the ceremony and said, “It’s
gonna
be hard for us to top this one, isn’t it?”

***

Halloween night
I declined to join the others who were going down to
Lahaina
for the once-a-year-debauchery that passes for a party. I was worn out and just
wanted to get my feet up and my blood pressure down so I opted for home.

Steve surprised
me by offering to take me home. As we made the twenty minute trek back to
Hali’imaile, I asked him something I’d been dying to ask for over a month.

“What made you
decide to pass on the
Go Hawaii
job in Honolulu?”

“It’s still
open so don’t get any ideas about raising my rent,” he said. “But remember that
night when the guys at the Ball and Chain were giving me the going away party?
I looked around and realized there was nothing in Honolulu that I wanted more
than what I already had. They asked me to make a speech and I got up there and
said I was re-naming the party the ‘Steve Isn’t Going Anywhere’ celebration. I
ended up picking up the entire tab because nobody would’ve considered it much
of a celebration if I’d stuck around and then stuck them with the check. But,
hey, I’ve never regretted not leaving.”

“But the job’s
still open?”

“Yeah.
And they’re buying some of my stuff for the magazine
anyway. But since it’s published over there it tends heavy toward the
O’ahu
side of life. So, I guess if something happens to
mess things up for me here I’ll think about it.
But not now.”

***

Two days later
on their ‘Announcements’ page, the
Maui News
ran a gorgeous photo Steve
had taken of Ono and Farrah. Underneath the photo was a description of their
wedding written by a local society reporter. I smiled when I read it. If the
piece hadn’t named names, I would’ve wondered if we attended the same wedding.
But hey, what do I know?

‘Farrah Jill
Milton and Oliver “Ono” John Kingston were married on October 31 at Baldwin
Beach Park in
Pa’ia
. The bride wore an elegantly
tasteful lace and taffeta gown with sweetheart neckline. Her flowing hair was
crowned with a
plumeria
and orchid headpiece and she
chose
plumeria
lei for herself and her attendants.
The groom wore a simple raw silk shirt, khaki slacks and tailored navy blazer
topped by a clever nautical cap proclaiming his position as captain of a local
catamaran yacht. Both bride and groom were barefoot, to demonstrate their
connection to the
‘
aina
(or ‘land’) and also,
as Mr. Kingston noted, “
because
both my bride and I
love the feel of sand between our toes.” They are honeymooning for two months
on a sailing trip to Tahiti aboard the catamaran,
Maui Happy Returns
.
When they return to Maui they will split their time between homes in
Pa’ia
and
Lahaina
.’

So there it
was. Farrah would be gone for two months. I’d miss her, no doubt. But maybe
finally after a year of ‘unfortunate events’ I’d finally have a couple of
months where the most pressing thing on my calendar was finding dyed-to-match
shoes, sash ribbons and cummerbunds in the perfect shade of ‘sea breeze teal.’
 

EPILOGUE

Natalie
Wilkerson, my former sister-in-law, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to charges of
premeditated murder, attempted murder and assault. Not only was she charged for
her role in the death of her husband, Stuart, she was also charged for coming
way too close to killing the two people who knew how and why she’d done it.
Even after her arrest she bragged to reporters that she’d never be found guilty
because the evidence was all circumstantial and mostly based on the testimony
of people who’d conspired against her.

“I’m way less
guilty than Casey Anthony,” she said. “And look at Casey. She’s not only free
as a bird, she’s a celebrity. I’m getting a publicist. I’m going to need one to
help me handle all the offers that will come in for me to do a reality show.”

What Natalie
failed to factor into her less-than-tasteful remarks was that she’d been
accused of murdering the son of one of Honolulu’s foremost families. The
Wilkersons
were regarded with the same respect and devotion
the Kennedys enjoy in Massachusetts. After all, it was Phil Wilkerson who was
responsible for bringing cable TV and high-speed internet to the islands and
that made him something of a local hero.

In the months
leading up to the trial it also came out that Natalie wasn’t pregnant. She
never had been. When the cops went through Natalie’s computer they saw she’d
purchased the “pee stick” confirming her pregnancy from a woman who’d
advertised it on eBay. It seems thirty bucks can buy a ton of coercion.

The jury took
just three hours to find Natalie guilty on all counts. The verdict meant there
would be no case brought by Natalie Wilkerson against the City of Honolulu for
the fouling of the
Ala
Wai
Canal and the subsequent wrongful death of her husband.

In one fell
swoop the jury managed to not only shut up an annoying wannabe-reality star
who’d viciously put to death a member of the much-loved Wilkerson clan, but
they also saved the taxpayers of Honolulu millions of dollars in extortion
money. Who says a jury is made up of twelve men and women too stupid to get out
of jury duty?

Certainly not me.

 AUTHOR’S NOTE

It’s always fun
to finish another tale in the life of wedding planner
Pali
Moon. And this one was especially fun since Honolulu presented many challenges.
To say the least, life in the big city is a world away from life on the
neighbor islands. It took time to research all the places
Pali
would go to on
O’ahu
but I felt it was necessary. I even
went so far as to eat lunch at the Queen’s Medical Center cafeteria. I can
report the food was pretty good and the environment was as cheerful as one
could hope for in a hospital setting.

I want to send
out a special
mahalo
to my early readers who helped me catch the ‘huh?’ moments. Every book suffers
from them, but they seem to hide rather cleverly from the author. So here’s a
shout out to Kathy Owen (aka novelist KB Owen) and Diana Paul. And, of course,
I’m indebted to my dear, long-suffering husband, Tom
Haberer
,
who not only reads the original draft but cheerfully puts up with frozen
skillet dinners while I’m doing final edits.

And, as always,
I want to send a warm
mahalo
nui
to you,
my readers. It’s wonderful to hear from you and read your reviews. Thank you for
your support.

Now it’s on to
Hawaii—the Big Island!

If you enjoyed,
“
O’ahu
Lonesone
Tonight?”
please look for other titles in the “Islands of Aloha Mystery Series” by JoAnn
Bassett

“Maui Widow Waltz”

“
Livin
’
Lahaina
Loca
”

“Lana’i of the Tiger”

“Kaua'i Me a River”

And if you like
love stories set in Maui, consider the “Escape to Maui” series by JoAnn Bassett

“Mai Tai Butterfly”

And coming soon:

“Lucky Beach”

Look for
updates on new titles on Facebook at “JoAnn Bassett’s Author Page”

And check out
her website:
http://www.joannbassett.com