Free 1 Murder on Moloka'i by Chip Hughes Page A

the “hidden thing” I had detected in Parke: The wealthy developer was a painfully lonely man. He pined for his ex-wife.
    “I wanted to see Sara.” Parke cleared his throat. “I had called her a few days before to invite her to dinner. She declined, saying she was going on the Moloka‘i mule ride the next day. So I flew over there. But she didn’t show–she had given me the wrong date. Maybe on purpose. Maybe by mistake.” Parked looked dejected as if it had all just happened to him.
    “Does the name Milton Yu sound familiar?” I shifted gears quickly again, not wanting him to lose momentum.
    “Too bad about Yu. He should have stuck with computers. Pakalōlō did him in.”
    “And Heather Linborg? She’s a Maui masseuse who seems to know you.”
    “Yes, I’ve met Heather, but she could have nothing to do with Sara’s death. And by the way, is Sara’s sister paying you to dredge up this garbage?”
    “Sorry, I can’t say.”
    “You don’t need to. If anyone was capable of harming Sara it was Adrienne. She stole Sara’s fiancé back in Boston and Sara never forgave her.”
    “Then why did Sara leave her everything?”
    “Adrienne was Sara’s only family. But after we divorced, Sara had said she planned to change her will, giving it all to her environmental causes instead. She procrastinated. And now she’s dead. How Adrienne found out about the will, I don’t know. But there’s her motive.”
    “Why would Adrienne hire me to uncover a murder she herself committed?” I tried to let on that I bought Parke’s theory, hoping he’d give me more.
    “To point suspicion at me.” Parke thumped his fat index finger repeatedly into his chest.
    “But she hadn’t even seen Sara for years.”
    “If you believe anything Adrienne Ridgely says, you can’t be much of a detective.”

fifteen
     
    “Greg Parke is a pathological liar.” Adrienne bristled. “I told you not to believe anything he said about me.”
    “Is he wrong?” I aimed my Impala up the Pali Highway the next morning, heading for Sara’s beach house in Lanikai. “Did your falling out with Sara have anything to do with a man in Boston?
    “We had a disagreement. You knew that before you interviewed Greg.”
    “Was the disagreement over Sara’s fiancé?”
    “I can’t listen to Greg’s lies about me,” she fumed. “You can believe him, or you can believe me.”
    We cleared the Pali tunnels and began weaving down to the windward side.
    “ To do the job you hired me for, Adrienne, there are some things I need to know.” I glanced at her face, which was set in a rigid expression. “Parke claims Sara was about to change her will before she died, to cut you out completely. What about it?”
    Adrienne was silent for a minute. “No, I didn’t know. I suppose Greg thinks Sara’s money should have gone back to him?”
    “No, he says she planned to donate it to her causes.”
    Adrienne shifted in her seat. “So was your whole conversation centered on me, or did you find out anything about Greg?”
    Was she being evasive or straightforward? I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
    “Parke admitted knowing both Heather Linborg and Milton Yu. And he confessed to going to Kalaupapa to find Sara. He says he was still in love with her, though he claims she cheated on him.”
    “Sara cheated?”
    “Parke even gave me a name.”
    “Who?”
    “The man you just had dinner with. Rush McWhorter.”
    Adrienne turned from me and gazed silently at pale Kailua Bay.
    When we reached Lanikai, I pulled into a gravel drive at the quiet, cul-de-sac end of the beach. Sara had spent a sizable chunk of her divorce settlement on two adjacent oceanfront lots shaded by coconut palms. Combined, they contained only one small cottage, which most new owners in her shoes would have torn down and replaced with a massive castle covering every available inch of land. I credited Sara for trying to retain the property’s natural beauty.
    The cottage