Free 5 Murder at Volcano House by Chip Hughes

just sobs.
    “Your husband wasn’t well,” I say. “He might have had another heart attack, even if he didn’t come to the VolcanoHouse.” I don’t mention the woman in red. Donnie doesn’t need to hear about her now.
    “I want to go to him,” she says. “I want to be with Rex.”
    “It’s not a pretty sight. I’ll take you if you want, but it’s not a pretty sight.”
    “I don’t care.” She goes into the bathroom and rinses her face.
    Then we walk the Crater Rim Trail to where Ranger Crisp and the Puna Security man have now been joined by a dozen onlookers, a state sheriff, and an emergency staff in rescue garb resembling space suits. They’ve got ropes and pulleys and other equipment. Ransom is still down in the vent. He’s not going anywhere.
    “Are you sure you want to see this, Donnie?”
    “I don’t want to,” she says. “I have to. Rex is my husband.”
    “Okay.” I take her to the edge of the trail. She peers over the railing and into the vent. “I knew it would happen!” she cries. “I knew it!”
    “We better go,” I say.
    “I need to talk to her,” the ranger says to me. “The sooner the better.”
    “She’ll be in her room. This is no place for her now.”
    The ranger nods and looks at me. “I need to talk more to you too.”
    “Whenever you’re ready,” I say and lead the widow of Rex Ransom back to the Volcano House.

fourteen
    “You should show this to the ranger when he interviews you.” I hand Donnie the original note when we return to her room, keeping the copy in my pocket. She scans it once again.
    “Once the ranger is through with us, would you like me to accompany you back to Kāua‘i?” I ask. “Sorry to say, your husband’s body may have to stay here with the medical examiner for now.”
    “That’s very kind of you,” she says. “I’ll manage, but can you wait while I make a call?”
    “No problem,” I say, assuming she’s going to inform family members of her husband’s death.
    When she takes her cell phone from her purse, I excuse myself. “I’ll be out in the hall.“
    “Stay here,” she says. “I’m just calling our renter, Jeffrey Bywater. I don’t want him to be shocked when he watches tonight’s news on the cruise ship.” She punches in a number she seems to know by heart.
    “Hello, Jeffrey? This is Donnie.”
    She pauses. I hear a male voice on the other end of the line, but I can’t make out his words. She whispers to me, “He’s aboard the
Pride of Aloha
.”
    “Are you and Byron enjoying the cruise?”
    He responds in more words I can’t decipher.
    “I’m glad,” she says. “Jeffrey, I’m afraid I have some bad news. Rex apparently had another heart attack while he was walking a trail by the Volcano House. He was found in a steam vent.” She pauses. “Jeffrey, he’s dead.”
    I overhear Jeffrey telling someone what Donnie just said. The other person, I assume, is Byron, Jeffrey’s friend.
    Donnie starts to sob again. “I’ll be okay,” she says into the phone. “I just wanted you to know.” Another pause. “That’s not necessary. I’ll be fine. I’m with the private detective.”
    She puts her hand on mine. I wonder what’s going on.
    “Okay, do what you like, but it’s not necessary. Goodbye, Jeffrey.”
    She puts down her phone.
    “Jeffrey and Byron have decided to cut their cruise short,” she explains. “They’re going to leave the ship when it docks at Nāwiliwili Harbor on Kāua‘i tomorrow morning, pick me up at Lihue Airport, and drive me back to Hanalei. I told them it wasn’t necessary. But they’re such caring guys.”
    “Sounds like you’ll be in good hands,” I say, but am frankly relieved she no longer needs my services.
    “I’ll be fine to fly a-back to Kāua‘i by myself tomorrow morning,” she explains, “since both of them will meet me there.”
    She barely gets out her words when there’s a knock at her door. I open it to Ranger Crisp. He wants to interview