Free 5 Murder at Volcano House by Chip Hughes Page A

Donniefirst. Alone. So I step into the hall. The ranger tells me, “Don’t go far.”
    “I’ll be in the lobby,” I say.
    Soon I’m warming my bones by the perpetual flames of the famous fireplace. Time passes. I’m not thinking about Rex Ransom. Maybe his death is too gruesome. The crackle and piney scent of the fire makes my mind wander—back to the Pali case and those unreturned calls, back to Blossom and her abusive ex-boyfriend, back to Maile and Kula. I drift off into a reverie that’s suddenly interrupted.
    “I’m ready for you,” the ranger says.
    We walk into the hotel dining room, empty at this time of day, take a table, and the interview begins.
    Ranger Crisp proceeds to ask me more expected questions, this time to corroborate what he’s been told by Donnie. How long I’d been working for her. What my duties entailed. Who I was protecting Mr. Ransom from. And how I went about it. The ranger also asks about the last time I saw Ransom. He seems to assume I’m the last person to see the victim alive. But I know I’m not.
    I mention again the young woman in red. “It may sound crazy, but this woman looked amazingly like Pele in one of her guises. It’s probably just a coincidence.“
    “Stanger things have happened,” the ranger says. “Some people will say Pele has claimed another victim, because of Mr. Ransom’s role in the geothermal operation at Wao Kele O Puna. His death makes three. And three looks like a pattern.”
    “And then there’s the note,” I say. “I assume Mrs. Ransom showed it to you.”
    “She did,” the ranger says. “We’ll follow up on it.”
    “Pele wasn’t Mr. Ransom’s only enemy—real or imagined,” I say. “He had mortal enemies too, but you probably know that.”
    “We know about some others. Who did you have in mind?”
    I tell him.
    He nods in agreement, as if we have the same list. Then he says, “Park Service personnel just removed the body.”
    “I bet his wallet was found on him,” I say, “with no evidence of theft.”
    The ranger nods. “We’re going on the assumption, suggested by Mrs. Ransom, that her husband had a heart attack. The autopsy will determine the exact cause.”
    “I would have been there,” I say, “but she was hysterical about that note.”
    “It’s a sad coincidence, isn’t it?”
    “How’s that?”
    “Well, she hires you to protect him. You follow him everywhere and nothing happens. And then you leave him alone for barely a minute—to comfort her—and he turns up dead.”
    Before long the interview is over. I walk back to Donnie’s room to express my sympathy again and say goodbye. She’s not there. Just as well.
    Minutes later my overnight bag rides beside me in the yellow Boxster, heading down the Volcano Highway to Hilo Airport.

fifteen
    Thursday I get in early to my office with a copy of the morning paper. The front page poses a provocative question: “Pele’s Third Victim?” Below is a photo of a younger Rex Ransom in his geothermal days. And below that, instructions to turn to the local section for the full story. I do.
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    Pele’s Third Victim?
Another Former Ransom Geothermal Executive Dies
    Hilo: Big Island geothermal developer Rex Ransom was found dead yesterday morning in an active steam vent at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The former CEO of Ransom Geothermal Enterprises apparently fell into the vent after being overcome by fumes. He was walking by himself on the Crater Rim Trail near the Volcano House when he fell.
    Ransom and his wife were staying in the park while attending a funeral for attorney Stanley Nagahara, who once represented Ransom Geothermal. Nagahara’s body was discovered recently in a crevasse in the East Rift Zone after a solo hiking accident. Nagahara was the second former Ransom Geothermal executive to die in the park. Drilling engineer Karl Kroften died nearly two years ago in a single car accident near the Halema‘uma‘u Crater.
    Ransom’s death yesterday brings