Maui Madness (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 7) (9 page)

“Can you tell us about your argument with Anton
?” I asked.

“W
e argued about the wreck, or at least the debris field of the wreck Malie and I found. I made the mistake of telling Leia, who used to treasure hunt with Malie and me. I thought she’d find it fascinating, and I guess she mentioned it to Anton. Anton warned me that diving in the area was dangerous, and that I should give up my search before I got both myself and Malie killed.”

“Dangerous how?” Levi asked.

“Anton suggested that there might be certain persons engaging in illegal activities in the same area where we found the remnants.”

“Drug runners,” Ellie guessed.

“Probably, although Anton was intentionally vague. I told him that I’d lived in the area my whole life and wasn’t going to let some haole tell me where I could and couldn’t dive. He got angry and called me a few choice names that I was able to match quite nicely. I stormed off, and that’s the last I ever saw of him.”

“When was that?” I asked.

“I guess around eight-thirty or nine. It was a nice day and I really wasn’t up for a party, so I left Keoke a note and went sailing.”

“You left Keoke a note?” I
said.

“Yeah
. I went back to the house to let him know what I was going to do, but he was on the phone. I knew if I told my grandparents or sister that I’d decided to leave, they’d try to talk me out of it, so I wrote Keoke a quick note and left it in his room. I figured he’d see it when he went in to change his clothes.”

“When we spoke to Keoke
, he didn’t mention a note,” I pointed out. “In fact, he seemed as confused as anyone about your absence. Could someone have taken the note?”

Pono shrugged. “I guess. Keoke’s bedroom door wasn’t locked
, but who would want to mess with the note?”

“Maybe the
killer,” Levi guessed. “If someone intended to set you up, they’d want everyone to think you remained on the island.”

“For someone to have taken the note
, they would have had to know you left it,” Malie realized. “Did you see anyone when you went to Keoke’s room?”

Pono thought about it. “There were people mingling about. Leia was in her room
, but the door was open. She asked me if I’d seen Anton and I told her that I’d last seen him outside. I didn’t mention the argument because I knew it would upset her.”

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“That friend of Anton’s was lurking in the hallway. I have no idea what he was up to and at the time it didn’t seem relevant.”

“Jeff
rey?” I remembered the best man’s name.

“Yeah, Jeffrey. I also remember seeing a couple of the caterers talking at the foot of the stairs. I don’t know their names or what they were talking about
, but I do remember thinking it was odd that they were in the main part of the house rather than the kitchen.”

“Okay
, so you saw Jeffrey, Leia, and two of the caterers. Did they see you?”

“I guess they did. The only one I spoke to was Leia.”

“Can you think of anyone who would have gone into the room for any other reason?” I asked.

“I suppose the maid
might have gone in to check on things. Like I said, the room wasn’t locked, so anyone could have gone in there and taken the note.”

“You said you argued with Anton about the treasure hunt.
Did Keoke know about it?” I asked.

Pono looked at Malie.

“I didn’t tell him,” she insisted.

“I didn’t either. Keoke
’s dad had the fever. It nearly destroyed his family, and in the end it cost him his life. Keoke would have told us to forget about looking for the treasure. I didn’t want to argue with him, so I didn’t tell him, although I suppose if he heard Anton and me arguing, he must know now. I’m afraid our conversation got pretty heated. It most likely would have ended in a physical altercation if Jeffrey hadn’t come along and encouraged Anton to head back to the house.”

“
What do you think we should do at this point?” Malie asked.

“I think we should forget about Anton and go diving
like we planned,” Pono answered. “The cops will figure out that I didn’t kill him. I’m sure once they do, they’ll put more effort into tracking down the real killer. We may lose the wreck if we don’t find it before the next big storm, so I say let the cops do their job and we’ll do ours.”

Malie didn’t say anything.

“Come on, Mal,” Pono coaxed. “You know I’m right. Anton is dead and nothing we do will change that. I don’t think Leia will be open to our help at this point, so really, why should we get involved?”

“
Okay. When do you want to go diving?” Malie asked.

“Tomorrow
,” Pono decided.

“
I’m in. How about you guys?” Malie looked at us.

“Is it okay with you?” I asked Pono.

“If we find a treasure, it belongs to Malie and me.”

“Agreed,” I answered for the group.

“Let’s meet in the morning. The marina at seven?”

“Sounds good
,” I said, although I secretly wished he would have opted for a much later start time.

There is nothing that can
quite compare to lying on the deck of a dive boat after a full day of diving and letting the sun soak the fatigue from your limbs. Of course, the cold beer Pono had thought to bring helped to relieve the tenderness of muscles that had not enjoyed this particular activity for quite some time.

It had been a productive day.
Ellie had stayed on the boat with Charlie while the rest of us went down several times. Pono schooled us on what to do and what to look for. I’d managed to retrieve half a plate that appeared to be fairly old, a hairbrush that looked to be too modern to have any significance, and a coin that was so covered in sea crud that it was impossible to identify. Zak had a little better luck, with the discovery of a silver bracelet and a knife with a silver handle. Levi was too busy chasing fish to find much of anything, but he did manage to come up with a large object that was shaped roughly like a cross but was covered in barnacles that Pono assured us could be soaked off. Malie found a number of items, including a gold locket that at one time might have held a valued photo, several pieces of silverware with initials on the handles, and a ceramic pitcher. Pono found a heavy chain that at one time must have held something down or possibly supported an anchor, and a cannonball with an emblem stamped onto one side.

“Did you see those sharks circling overhead when we were down by the reef?” Malie asked.

“I did. They were so beautiful.” I smiled.

“You saw sharks?” Ellie screeched.

“Just a couple of reef sharks,” I said.

“In the water with you?”

Pono laughed. “Don’t worry; this particular breed hardly ever eats humans. They’re nocturnal feeders that were probably just chillin’.”

“
Hardly ever
eats humans?” Ellie gasped. I thought she was going to pass out.

“You do realize that we
’re in the ocean, right?” I reminded her. “Sharks live in the ocean, and you’ll occasionally run into one, if you’re lucky.”

“
Lucky
?”

“We weren’t in any danger,” Levi assured her. “Sharks respond to sound
vibrations. You’re probably more likely to get bit flapping around on the surface while you snorkel than we were while diving.”

I kicked Levi. Hard.

“Ouch. Why’d you do that?”

I nodded toward Ellie
, who was completely pale.

“Oh,” Levi said as he rubbed his shin.

“What is that island in the distance?” Zak asked.

I was grateful for the change in subject.

“Kaho‘olawe,” Pono told him.

“Is it inhabited?” I asked.

“Not currently, although it has been in the past. During World War II, Kaho‘olawe was used as a training ground and bombing range by the armed forces. After decades of protests, live-fire training exercises were terminated, and the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve was established. Today, the island can be used only for native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes,” Malie explained.

“And before the armed forces took over?”

“There is a long history of small settlements on the island,” Malie said. “Sometime around the year 1000, Kaho‘olawe was settled by native Hawaiians, and small, temporary fishing communities were established along the coast. War among competing chiefs caused a decrease in population. During the War of Kamokuhi, the ruler of the Big Island raided Kaho‘olawe in an unsuccessful attempt to take Maui from the King of Maui, which devastated the local population even further. I’m not sure of all the details surrounding the island population, but I do know that the island was mostly deserted during the 1700s. After the arrival of missionaries in the 1800s, the Kingdom of Hawaii replaced the death penalty with exile, and Kaho‘olawe became a men’s penal colony sometime around 1830.”

“Wow
, that’s really interesting.”

“You should talk to my Uncle Rory,” Malie suggested.
“He knows a lot more about local history than I do.”

“Speaking of Rory
, maybe he can help us identify some of this stuff,” Pono said. “If we can identify the marking on the cannonball, maybe we can trace it back to a specific ship.”

“So do we take tomorrow off and go to my uncle
’s in the hope that we can find these marks in one of his books, or do we come out again and keep looking?” Malie asked.

Pono sat quietly as he considered her question. I honestly didn’t care about the answer
—either activity seemed interesting to me—so I closed my eyes and let the motion of the boat lull me toward the most relaxed state I’d been in for quite some time. Charlie was asleep under the lounge chair I was lying on. I wasn’t sure how he’d do with the day-long trip, but he seemed to enjoy being with everyone, and I knew he’d hate being left at the house alone. We’d anchored around midday and used the lifeboat to make the short trip onto a nearby island, where we’d eaten our lunch and let Charlie run around a bit. I wasn’t certain that Pono would be thrilled to have Charlie aboard his boat, but when I asked about bringing him, he’d smiled and responded that having a dog on board could only bring them good luck. His attitude made me like him even more.

“I suppose you could take the artifacts and
pay a visit to your uncle, and maybe the guys and I could dive again tomorrow,” Pono suggested after he’d thought about it a bit.

“That’s fine with me,” Malie
said. “I really need to stop off to check on the turtles we’re monitoring on the south shore. Would you girls like to go along with me to my uncle’s? He lives on the south end of the island, so it’s about a ninety-minute drive from where you’re staying.”

“I would,” Ellie answered.

I could feel Ellie looking at me as she waited for my reply.

“Zoe?” Ellie asked.

“Hmm,” I responded.

“I think that was a yes
.” Ellie laughed. “Do you really think we found something?”

“It’s hard to say,” Malie answered truthfully. “The items we found are old a
nd most likely came from a shipwreck, but until we find the body of a ship, or something so definitive as to positively identify a ship, it’s hard to say if these items will lead us anywhere. It’s fun to look, though.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Ellie agreed. “But,”
she added, “as fun as this has been, I’m starving. We have a ton of food back at the house. If we’re done here, why don’t we all head back and I’ll make something? That is, if you and Pono would like to join us.”

“Ellie is a great cook
.” I opened my eyes and sat up. “She even owns her own restaurant back in Ashton Falls.”

“You do?” Malie asked. “Why have you never mentioned that?”

“I guess it didn’t come up in conversation,” Ellie said. “And it’s not a fine-dining restaurant. It’s a soup-and-sandwich place on the beach. Very causal.”

“It
’s an extremely popular place to eat,” I clarified. “Ellie is being modest. Her appetizers are famous and her desserts . . . let’s just say that you haven’t tasted heaven until you’ve tried one of Ellie’s special desserts.”

Malie laughed. “I think you’ve been holding out on us.
I’d love to come for dinner. Pono?”

“Any day someone else cooks for me is a good day
.”

“
Can I help?” Malie asked.

“I’d love that
.” Ellie smiled.

“I guess we should head back,” Pono s
aid. “It’ll take a while to dock, and I for one would love to stop by my place to shower and change before I come over.”

“I’d love to see the other things you found before we came along,” Levi
said. “Maybe you could bring them?”