"Give me a black coffee. None of that fru-fru shit."

Detective Jones is about to drive through a Starbucks coffee when he starts to laugh. The dynamic between the two crack me up. They banter but you can tell it has depth to it. 

"Fine. No worries."

He orders coffee and detective Keele adjusts notes on his lap. I can see my name drawn in the middle in big letters, with what looks like a spider web shooting outwards with names all around mine. Was I the spider in this scenario? I don't like spiders. 

"So, who are we seeing after the office?"

"We need to see the hotel lawyer. He has a huge connection to her."

"Oh yeah, I saw his file. That interview should be interesting."

"Or fucked up, depends on how cooperative he is."

Detective Jones pulls up to the Starbucks window and pays as well as grabs the coffees from the barista.

"I was thinking. One possible scenario is this is an accident."

"Never go against the coroner when they have clear cut evidence. It's not good practice. But If we find contrary evidence, then we can consider it."

"I get it boss....just thinking outside the box."

Detective Keele holds up the pad of paper he has on his lap. 

"This right here has all the possibilities we can handle. We need to go over everything and start weeding them out one by one."

I know there are a lot of suspects but I am surprised that almost all of them seemed to have a motive to want to kill me. How can that even possibly be true? It almost doesn't sound normal. Nothing in my life really ever turned out how I had planned but this was next level crazy. If you can imagine your death being a homicide, you only picture one suspect doing it. 

He drives back to the Honolulu Police station and I follow them back inside to their office. By now it feels normal accompanying them. And oddly comforting. They are the cavalry, the military and the knights in shining armor. Beacons of truth on a fact finding mission. I have faith they will figure this mystery out. 

Somehow. 

🩸

"Bring out the white board."

"I guess it warrants it...your notebook is full of names..." 

Detective Jones leaves the office to get a jumbo rolling white board. He wheels it in and lets it rest by their desks. I am going to be on one of those CSI show type boards. This feels weird. 

"Start at the middle, Leilani, the victim."

He grabs a marker and writes my name in purple oddly enough, which just so happens to be my favorite color. Do they know that? Detective Keele taps the desk with his pen as he glances at his notebook. 

"She was 23. Worked at Hilton Hawaiian Village as Guest Services Coordinator. Her parents died a few years ago and she is an orphan adult. No other family. Few friends. Many acquaintances."

I sounded....sad. My life hadn't felt that way but I guess I was more of loner. I thought I had been doing well for myself though. 

"Owned own home, should we put that on?"

Detective Keele nods. 

"Yep. Also important. We haven't gone to talk to the building suspects yet. Or the other acquaintances outside of her workplace."

"Why not just bring them in here, all at once? At least the ones from the hotel?" Detective Jones asks, genuinely sounding like he wants to know. 

"I like this approach better for this case. For one, there are too many suspects. For another reason, they are giving us clues by going to them. Slipping up. If we did the interviews here I doubt we would have gotten as many stalking confessions."

Detective Jones nods and grunts. It makes sense. They were comfortable in their own environment instead of being backed into a corner at the station. I knew for a fact that Ron wouldn't have squealed if he was in the presence of more police. He would have shut down. He tended to do that in bigger meetings as well. 

"Anything else on the victim?"

"She was single. No apparent boyfriend. But she had a few former lovers. That usually points to more motive actually."

The word 'single' is written in red. Seemed poetic. My love life was murdered right along with me. 

"Because the former lovers could hold grudges?"

"Bingo. Often times we find this is the case. Whether the victim knows of the grudge or not, the jilted lover will find a way to do harm. It could be a lover from years past even."

"I don't know that she had a jilted lover though, I still like the HR woman for this."

Detective Keele laughs, throwing me off guard. What was funny about Lila?

"That woman is definitely nuts. I like her for it too but lets go over each suspect in the order we have interviewed them."

Detective Jones writes out the first suspects name, Kenny, my old boss. 

"Leilani's boss, Director of Guest Services. Married, cheating on wife with HR Director. Motive...."

Detective Keele touches his chin as I move closer to him, looking at his notes on the desk. He has crossed through Kenny's name. I wonder why. 

"Motive is affair, possible exposure."

"Ok. But do we have any proof that Leilani knew of the affair. So far it seems that her boss was nice to her and treated her well. She didn't show any signs that she knew to anyone we have interviewed. And the evidence in the apartment...."

Detective Keele interrupts detective Jones.

"Evidence for it is really not there. Just the affair link. The prints from her place aren't back yet. But she didn't have a journal or anything in the condo that pointed to him. So for now, we can cross out his name. But leave him on the board, in case we receive contrary evidence."

Detective Jones writes the next name down, Tio.

"Co-worker to victim, also Guest Services Coordinator. Admitted to stalking her. Picture and video evidence collected. He is in a mental ward." Detective Keele says. 

"Have we gotten an update on his status there?"

"This morning the doctors said that he is still being held. They are deeming him unsafe to let go, even to his grandmother. But anything he admits to in there has to be scrutinized because he is drugged pretty heavily."

"Well shit. alright. Keep him as a suspect?"

"Yes. Until we can get something ruling him out. Beat cops are doing door to door still. Some neighbors haven't been home or they have been unable to contact them. Next suspect is Lila."

"Lila is the prime one so far, right?" Detective Jones asks, writing her name in black. 

"Yes indeed. Circle her name actually. I think we will find her prints on our victims door actually. Not sure about in the condo itself, but likely on the roof too."

Detective Jones circles Lila's name. 

"She is HR Director and having affair with Kenny, the victim's boss. Her spouse knows of the affair and said she goes to the gym in the early mornings. We couldn't find footage though of her in the hallway or in the gym. Motive is jealousy connected to the affair."

They add Fliau's name. 

"He is the Dining Director. Motive is obsession/stalking. I don't think he killed her but we don't know yet. We need to analyze his devices and also wait for prints."

"I think he is a good suspect though. The age gap is wide unlike Tio stalking her, but he reacted very violently to us questioning his motives."

At this point I am beginning to think someone did kill me for reasons that make no sense. Murder because they wanted me. Lila was also interested in women so she could have been attracted to me too. While alive, I had zero idea these people were watching me, interested in me. Almost boggles the mind. Even from the grave if you will. 

"Lastly we have Ron, the Maintenance Director. His motive isn't that cut and dry is it?"

Detective Keele shakes his head.

"It involves his wife, but we haven't interviewed her yet. Just add a question mark by him. They are likely doing illegal things but that is just a hunch. What Leilani knew about that is still unclear."

That is all they had so far for suspects they have interviewed. But there were more names still on Detective Keele's notebook pages. 

"Add these names on but leave everything else blank until we conduct the interviews. There is Marcus, company lawyer. Kima, Housekeeping Director. Rachel, next door neighbor. Reggie, valet at the hotel. Ian, door man at her condo. Becky, Realtor and former partner of her parents. James, her old Professor at U of H. Tommy, surf instructor at the hotel. Mia, owner of Acai Bowl and Kalu, a construction worker that was recently interviewed talking strangely about Leilani."

Detective Jones's eyes grow huge. 

"Holy shit!! Boss! This is a ton of suspects!"

"Indeed. 15 total. Most I have ever seen on a case in all my years doing this."

🩸

The realization that there were that many suspects in my death has me reeling. Honestly, I have no thoughts that are coherent. How can I have that many people possibly wanting to murder me? The fact Detective Keele has never seen that many in all his years doing this in Hawaii made it that much worse. And that makes me to try and think about my life harder. What have I done to cause this?

I don't get a chance to do this deep thinking yet though because a phone call interrupts the room. 

"Yep...ah....ok...ok. What about the interior prints? Oh really? Ok....yep...and the roof top?"

Detective Keele is jotting down notes but I am too nervous to spy on them. My ghostly stomach was in knots. I feel sick. Sick with what they were finding out. 

"That's it? Ok man, thanks. Appreciate it, I owe you."

He hangs up and exhales before telling detective Jones the news. 

~ This book is Copyrighted by K E Jennings and only available on Wattpad. if you are reading this on another site, it has been stolen without permission or monetary payment to the said author. ~

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Fun Hawaiian Fact: On the island of Molokai, the North Shore Pali sea cliffs are the tallest in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. They stand at 3,600 feet.