PO Box Honolulu, Hawaii Read online

  Kat interrupted this time. “What kind of business is he in?”

  “He works for a law firm. He’s an investigator for them.”

  I asked, “Do you know what he was working on, or where he was staying?”

  “He hardly ever talks business with me because he knows how much I worry. But this time he said he would be gone for just two days. He even showed me his reserved return ticket. He said not to worry, as it should be an easy case. He’d be looking into a blackmailing episode; just gathering up some information for his boss. Nick said he’d be staying in Kailua-Kona town at the Fern Grotto Hotel. He gave me a kiss and a big hug saying he’d see me in two days, and he’d call me that evening.”

  Kat asked, “Did he call you?”

  “Yes, he called but said he probably wouldn’t call me again, but would look forward to seeing me at the airport in two days when he returned. He told me again the time he was arriving, and that he loved me.”

  With that, the moisture began to blur Nadia’s eyes and she whispered, “The reason I’m so worried is that his best friend who was working on the same assignment was murdered a little over two weeks ago. That’s when Nick took over the case. Now Nick’s disappeared and I’m so scared that something’s happened to him too. Will you please help me find out what’s happened to my fiancé?”

  Chapter 2

  Nadia gave us her cell phone number and again asked if we would help her, as she knew we were private detectives. We told her we would do what we could, but we were in Hawaii on an assignment and were hired by a client from the Mainland to investigate a situation that had taken place in Honolulu. We didn’t tell her that it was also for a blackmail situation. But I must admit that at the time I did wonder if it could possibly be connected to the one that Nick Lang, Nadia’s fiancé, was on when he mysteriously disappeared. Because I knew it would be such a remote chance, I washed it away from my mind

  We parted our ways, making plans to meet for lunch at the Paradise where we were staying for two days. We asked Nadia to write down any information she could think of, and to give us Nick’s employer’s name and phone number.

  Before we went our ways we asked Nadia why she had never contacted any of us after we all left Paul’s Island. She said she had a hard time with Sue’s death, and all the questions that had been asked. So when it was through, she just wanted to break away for a little while. She said that she loved all of us, but for her own sanity she had to get away. She came to Hawaii for what she thought would be just a short time and had planned to rejoin our group, but ended up staying longer.

  She got a job, met Nick, fell in love and now they were engaged. She said she was planning to invite all of us to the wedding, and she was so happy we had run into each other. In no way did she think it was just a coincidence. She was hoping and praying that the two of us would be able to help her locate Nick and put an end to her misery, no matter what the outcome would be.

  We again reminded her that we were here on another case, but would do the best we could to help her find her fiancé.

  After saying our goodbyes, Kat and I went back to our room to sort things out. We looked up the phone number of a detective agency we had heard of. It had been recommended to us by some friends who used to live in the islands and were distant relatives of the owners of the agency. We gave them a call and set up a meeting for the next day.

  Kat and I decided to take a walk to the post office not far from our hotel. Mrs. Anita Sinclair, when she asked us to take on her blackmail case, had given us the zip code and it matched that post office. We had no idea what we were looking for, but first checked out the box number, and to our surprise we found out there was no such number.

  After a long wait and much discussion with a couple of counter workers we were able to meet with the postmaster, a Mr. Edwards. We introduced ourselves as detectives from the Mainland and told him we were sure that every month for over thirty years a letter was sent to his post office box, even though it was a number that didn’t seem to exist. The envelope was never returned to the sender with “no such address” written across it, so we were sure it was being delivered to the person it was intended for.

  We thought about it for a while, then Kat asked, “Who is your longest employee here?”

  “That’s easy. Chas Baker … or rather, he was. We gave him his retirement party two weeks ago. He could have moved up, but he refused all promotions. He’d been here for over thirty years.”

  I asked Mr. Edwards, “What did he do? He must have really liked his job.”

  He chuckled and nodded. “Yes, he did. He sorted out the mail, putting everything in the right boxes.”

  Kat and I looked at each other. Thirty years, the same length of time that the blackmailer was taking Mrs. Sinclair’s money. We were pretty sure this was our culprit. Chas Baker. He had the perfect job, putting the mail in the right boxes, or in this case in the right pocket. His!

  Chapter 3

  We asked Mr. Edwards, the postmaster, for Chas Baker’s address or phone number. We told him we wanted to talk to him because he might be able to put some light on the missing letters that had been sent to the non-existent box number over the past thirty years.

  “Sorry,” he said, “can’t help you there. Baker said he was going over to the Big Island for a few days, and then he was going to move to the Mainland. He wasn’t sure where, but said once he got settled he’d forward us his new address. He went over to the Big Island often when he took his days off. He stayed in one of those fancy hotels in Waikoloa, very beautiful and very expensive.”

  We told him where we were staying and gave him our business card, asking him to give us a call on our cell phones if he ever heard from Baker.

  We thanked him, and as we started to leave and before we got to the door, I turned around and asked, “Do you happen to have a picture of Chas Baker by chance?”

  “Yes I do. It’s from the going away party we gave him. Hold on for a second, I’ll make a copy for you.”

  It only took a few minutes to scan and print it.

  “This the only one we have of him. He doesn’t get in many pictures, but this is a good shot of Chas.”

  I looked at the picture, then handed it to Kat. Chas Baker seemed happy, a little gray at the temples, a big smile and very distinguished looking. Nothing like one might think how a blackmailer would look.

  “Oh, I have two more questions. Was he married, and does he have family or friends that you know of?”

  “Not sure. He never talked much about his private life, but we all were pretty certain he wasn’t married. Every time we had a party of some kind for one of our employees, he always came with a different girl on his arm. As she was always attractive, most of us felt he was just a playboy. He wasn’t an easy man to get attached to. But he was friendly here at the post office, and always did a great job in sorting. He never called in sick and always took his vacation time, dividing it into short days off, and the same time each month. He was never gone more than two or three days each time. We thought it was strange, but that was Chas.”

  We thanked Edwards again and reminded him that if anything popped up, to please give us a call on one of our cell phone numbers on the card.

  As we walked away I whispered to Kat, “I think we’ve discovered our blackmailer.”

  “Yes,” Kat replied, “but how do we actually find him?”

  Chapter 4

  We arrived at the detective agency about ten minutes early. There was a sign on the glass door that read, “Akamai Detective Agency.”

  We sat in the waiting room which was tastefully decorated in a Hawaiian motif. We didn’t wait long. Soon the office door opened and a local-looking man and woman stood in front of us with outstretched hands and big welcoming smiles. They were a very striking couple. He had on white shorts, an Aloha shirt and no shoes. She was dressed in a short Hawaiian style dress, a flower in her hair and also no shoes. They had the gift of making us feel comfortable right away. We would c
all it the gift of hospitality.

  Taking my hand the man said, “You two must be Kit and Kat, the detectives from the Mainland.”

  Before I could say yes, he said, “We’re Kalani and Mehana at your service.”

  The four of us hit it off instantly. It was like we had found two special friends, and they agreed they felt the same. Kalani called it “Ohana,” meaning family in Hawaiian.

  I pointed to the door and asked, “Akamai?”

  He said, “It means Smart.” He then continued, “We’re known by our clients and friends as the Smart Agency. It wasn’t our intention to call it that, but our friends insisted. They said, ‘You two were the smartest in your class,’ and jokingly said, ‘We call your place, the Smart Agency.’

  “We didn’t like that much, so settled with Akamai Detective Agency. Many of our Mainland clientele don’t know what it means anyway, and few, unlike yourselves, even ask. But our local clients know exactly what it means and most of them give us a big smile. We do a lot of follow-up for our Mainland customers, but some ask, and when they do, we find it embarrassing!”

  The four of us got a laugh out of that, and we assured them we liked the name.

  We explained why we were in Hawaii and said we would like to hire them to do some investigating for our case, as we were only visitors here and knew very little about places and locations on the islands; and besides, we didn’t even know if we’d be able to pronounce the names of the streets and towns. That was something else for us to laugh at!

  Kalani said they would help us in any way they could, and were looking forward to showing us the ropes of their beautiful island. They would help us in the pronunciations, reminding us that there were only thirteen letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, and five of those were vowels. He said there were no consonant clusters in the Hawaiian language, and each word must always end with a vowel and have at least one other vowel in each word.

  Then Mehana said, “For your information, you are both a malihini. That’s our word for visitor.”

  We stumbled over it a few times, until they felt sorry for us and broke it down. MA-LEE-HEE-NEE. Of course that brought even more laughter!

  When we were through, we all decided to go out to dinner. Kalani and Mehana said they knew of a hide-away place that was quiet and had great food, and then we could get better acquainted and map out our agenda with the little information that Kat and I had.

  We also asked them if they knew anything about the Big Island, especially the Kailua-Kona area.

  Mehana spoke up. “That’s right up my alley. I was born and raised there. Whatever information you need, just ask. I’m a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the Big Island. On the other hand, Kalani can tell you all about Oahu. Where do we start?”

  I gave them Chas Baker’s name, where he worked and showed them his picture. They said they would ask around at the post office for anyone who might have known him, and would have any information for us in a couple of days. They also said they had a friend who worked there.

  We said our goodbyes. While heading back to the hotel, Kit and I agreed we had found new friends.

  We were still on jet lag so we went to bed and watched TV for a while. We fell asleep with the TV still on. I woke up just before 1:00 a.m., turned it off, and promptly fell back asleep.

  The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then went to the tour desk in the lobby. We bought two one-way tickets to Kona, with reservations to stay at the Fern Grotto Hotel.

  We didn’t know what we were going to do, but it was a beginning. We had to start somewhere, and why not at a hotel in the Kona area?

  Chapter 5

  Our reservations were to leave the next night. Kat called Nadia and canceled our lunchtime together. She told her we were planning to be gone for just a few days, and we would call her when we returned.

  She gave us Nick’s employer’s name and phone number, and the travel agency he always worked with. She also gave us the name of the car rental Nick used, and a good description of him: height, weight, age and what he was wearing the last time she had seen him. She reminded us that Nick was staying at the same hotel on the Big Island where we were going to stay.

  “I’ll email you a picture of Nick,” she said. “It will be there for you when you arrive.”

  While Kat was talking to Nadia, I emailed Mrs. Sinclair giving her an update. I told her we were heading for the Big Island where we believed the culprit was, and he was most likely staying at one of the expensive hotels in the Waikoloa area.

  She wrote back immediately and thanked us, saying she had much confidence in us and knew we would soon end her having to pay the blackmailer each month. She also wrote that she would much rather give the money to us, and wondered if we had any idea what his name was.

  I wrote back and asked her if the name Chas Baker meant anything.

  Again writing back immediately saying no it didn’t, but maybe if she had a picture it would help.

  I took a picture of the photo I had of Baker with my cell phone and sent it to her. She wrote back saying, “Sorry, but neither the name nor the picture are familiar to me.”

  Our flight was canceled because of a hurricane warning and was rescheduled for a night flight the next day. In spite of the warning, the hurricane never hit the islands.

  When we arrived at the hotel we asked the receptionist if she knew if a Nick Lang had checked in. She checked her records and said, “Yes, Mr. Lang checked in and out on the same day. He left no forwarding address or phone number. Is there anything else we can help you with?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “Who checked him in?”

  “Actually I did. I remember him well. He checked in, was very nice, had a great smile and was very polite. He went up to his room, and about twenty minutes later came down with his luggage and checked out. He seemed to be in a big hurry. I thought it was very strange.”

  “Thanks, Miss…?”

  “You can call me Leilani, and if I can be of any further assistance please don’t hesitate to ask. Is he missing or is something wrong? Like I said, when he checked in he was a very nice gentleman.”

  Kat said, “Thanks, Leilani. If we need any help we’ll be sure to let you know.”

  A thought came to my mind, so I showed her Chas Baker’s photo. “Have you ever seen this guy?”

  “Yes, I’ve seen him. He didn’t stay here at the hotel, but he met someone here for lunch a couple of times. Not sure who he met. He was very secretive and kept looking around. He seemed uncomfortable.”

  We thanked her, and after checking into our room we walked up and down the one street that made up Kailua-Kona town. It was all very laid-back. There were a few quaint shops and very friendly people. It didn’t take us long to walk the one length and then turn around and walk back. Kat, of course, stopped off a few times and bought a few items.

  We found a good place for dinner, and afterwards we sat on a rock wall and watched the waves. We found out later that Kona has very few beaches. Mostly all lava rock, but the waves were beautiful as they sprayed off the rocks. And the sunset was breathtaking. It was so peaceful and majestic-looking, all at the same time. And we were able to see the green flash that’s so famous here in Hawaii, an optical phenomenon that sometimes occurs right after sunset or right before sunrise.

  We spent the next day making phone calls to other hotels asking if a Chas Baker was registered. We called Kalani and Mehana and they gave us some information that helped. It was mostly about Baker and his lifestyle, saying he acted like he was one of the rich and famous.

  Our plan was to drive out to the more expensive hotels to see if we could find him, the man we believed who was blackmailing our client, Mrs. Anita Sinclair. Mr. Edward, the postmaster, had mentioned that Chas Baker often stayed in one of the fancy hotels in the Waikoloa area.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning we did just that. After breakfast, we drove to the Waikoloa area which was about forty minutes from the hotel where we were stayi
ng. Kat and I, as you may remember, stayed in that area for a short honeymoon, before our month-long cruise to the Mediterranean. That was when we found out that Kona meant the coast, and that the mailing address was actually Kailua-Kona. But most people who live on this side of the island affectionately call it Kona.

  We checked at the desk of different hotels in the area, showing them Chas Baker’s picture. After our third try, someone finally recognized him, but the information was not good. Just after midnight he had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead at 3:43 am from three bullets in the chest.

  Yep, he was murdered right there at the Paradise Hotel in his room several hours before we arrived!

  Our case of blackmail had now become a murder investigation – that is if Mrs. Sinclair wanted us to investigate any further.

  Chapter 7

  We spent the rest of the day at the Paradise Hotel where our suspect was murdered, collecting information. There wasn’t much, as no one seemed to know Chas Baker.

  I emailed Anita Sinclair the moment we returned to the Fern Grotto Hotel, telling her about the murder. Usually she wrote back right away, but this time it took a few hours. She said she’d had some business to take care of and apologized. She had told us to email her instead of calling, as she always answered back right away, but also it gave her time to think before answering. On the phone she would have to give an answer right then, and many times she wished she’d waited so she could give a different response.

  Her email said she had told us she would pay us $100,000, and since there was no complete evidence that Chas Baker was the blackmailer, for us to continue until we were sure he was the one. She wanted to be sure the blackmail demands had finished.