Suspect #7. 

The Housekeeping Director. 

Kima is the wife of Ron, the Maintenance Director. She is a mix of races, mostly Asian and all tiny ball of energy and meanness. No one is tougher than her in the hotel. And no one gets in her way, not even Lila. 

"I said to scrap putting corners on the tissue and toilet paper. It's pointless and costs us too much time! We need to focus on the beds and then the floors. Too many complaints of the beds not being changed and then the floors having sand and who knows what else shit on them!"

She is on the phone talking to what I am guessing is an employee in housekeeping. Her office is a huge mess, messier than I would have figured for her position. How can you take a housekeeping employee seriously if they have an uber filthy office? Not to mention the actual head of the department.

"Tell them they work until it's done! Overtime. Yep. Yep. Don't worry about it, I'll handle the heat for it. You know me." 

The conversation ends with her hanging up after more chastising. It is typical for what I have seen in the past for Kima. Tough as nails, that is her. 

"Stupid people....they can't just do what they are told! I swear I can't get out of here fast enough....if only my dumb husband would help more." She grunts, grabbing a packaged donut from her desk drawer, the gross powdered kind. "If he keeps getting in my way, I will have to do something about it."

Do something? Like murder perhaps?? Had she come to my place and 'done something' about me? The questions swirl in my mind. I can't decide who I think had murdered me. The detectives were right, I had an ungodly amount of suspects surrounding my untimely demise. 

I hover in her office for what feels like another hour, but really had only been minutes before another visitor interrupts the silence. This time though it was in person.

"Kima, we need to talk."

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"The law is very clear on this...."

"I don't give a fuck Marcus. Word is that you are distracted on this one because they think you killed Leilani. Did you?"

Marcus's face was angry as he slams his fist onto Kima's desk. The noise and force scares her and me. I could still feel scared. Noted. 

"I didn't kill her. I loved her. For fucks sake, all you guys need to stop gossiping and do your damn jobs. This suit wouldn't have even gone forward if your staff had done their jobs."

Now it was Kima's turn to get angry.

"Don't you dare blame my staff. They are overworked and underpaid..."

"No they are not and you know it. The hotel pays the highest rate on Oahu for housekeepers. That is a fact. You hired friends and family Kima, ones that are lazy as hell....that is the real reason why one of our guests was poisoned."

"It was an accident. Not intended to happen."

"That won't hold up in court, they are going to nail us to the wall. I have already gotten the preliminary police report that your cousin was hung over when she switched out the water bottles in the room. She is going down for it and the hotel will too."

Holy crap! I had no idea this was going on. It must have happened after my death, and Marcus was right, it would be very very bad for Hilton. 

"I am done talking to you Marcus. Do your job."

Marcus looks exhausted and has bags under his eyes. A tiny part of me feels sorry for him, and another wants to know why he was outside my building the morning of my death. It's beginning to get more than complicated. 

"You better make sure you didn't kill Leilani Kima. I know you thought she knew about your illegal marketplace." He spits out before leaving her office. 

Illegal marketplace??

Kima cusses as she slams her office door shut. Then a knock is heard from the other side. 

"We need to speak to you, do you have a minute to talk?"

Detectives Jones and Keele were here.

🩸

Kima has changed demeanors quickly. Too quickly. Her rage from Marcus's conversation was all but gone now and she plastered a fake smile on her face as the detectives sit in front of her. 

"What was the shouting about?" Detective Jones asks, his face set in work mode.

"Shouting? Oh it was nothing. Just the hotel lawyer conferring on a suit that has been brought forward. No big deal."

Detective Keele takes out his small notebook and opens to a new page, doing so slowly so Kima notices.

"We are aware of the details of the suit against the hotel, and the interview notes from your cousin. We are not here because of that...this interview is regarding Leilani."

"I can save you some time and tell you already that I had nothing to do with it." Kima retorts, some anger in her voice. 

Her façade was cracking at the questions. It makes me think she is definitely hiding something. The detectives are of course coming to the same conclusion.  Detective Keele jots down some things and Kima tries to peek at his writing. Not very lady like. 

"Where were you the morning of her murder? This was 6 days ago..."

" I remember the day. Everyone does. It devastated us all!" She retorts, looking fake pained. 

There was no way Kima was devastated. She didn't even like me! 

"So where were you then?" 

"I woke early, like I always do. Went and got breakfast and back home then to work.." She says. 

Did they believe her? 

"You didn't get breakfast." Detective Keele says. "You were here taking supplies from the stores in the basement. We have video of it." 

He opens his phone up to show a feed of Kima walking arm fulls of plastic wrapped blankets to an area not shown by video. Not definitive proof she was stealing anything but definitely suspicious and weird. What else could she be doing with the housekeeping supplies? 

"I wasn't doing anything illegal. Just rearranging the storage area. That's not a crime." 

Detective Jones clears his throat and looks at her with a deadpan face before he speaks.

"Filming Leilani's coming and going without her knowledge might be." 

🩸

Another stalker.

I had another one! Video taping me. Holy Jesus, this was getting stupid crazy. Only, Kima had a different motive. She wasn't attracted to me. I hadn't supposedly caught her cheating on her husband and I hadn't personally done anything to her. That I knew of. 

Detective Keele decided to see how much she would spill to them before leaving. She vehemently denied stealing anything from her department and the detectives didn't push too much for answers, but I knew it must have something to do with me, somehow. Mainly she said she taped me because she thought I was stealing. Which was absurd. I had never stolen a thing in my life! 

"We will call you in to the station soon, just to wrap this up." 

"Fine fine. Thanks." 

The detectives get up to leave as Kima eagerly ushers them out. It is rushed and everyone knows it. I stay in the room with her so I can see what she's up to. So far I've noticed the people I knew spilling their secrets directly after the interviewing is done. I figure it's human nature. A product of being alive. Of which, I can no longer identify with. 

And just like clockwork, Kima watches from her cracked door for the detectives to get on the elevator, then she scurries back to her desk and uses her work phone to call someone. 

"Hey. Yes, they were just here. They just now left....yes. Get this, they had video of me moving supplies around the morning of Leilani's death. Yes!" 

Who was she talking to?

"Fine...I'll wait." 

She hangs up and sits back in her chair, looking over the mess on her desk. Touching a stack of invoices she shuffles through them. She is waiting for the person to either call back or come see her. I wonder who it is. I know I'm missing important conversations between the detectives by staying here with her but I'm too curious to leave. I start to feel anxious. 

"Kima.." 

Lo and behold, in walks Lila. 

Lila! 

These two women practically hate each other. 

"Why didn't you erase the video feed like you promised?" 

Kima is upset and looks like she wants to sock Lila in the face. I just want to know what is going on. 

"I must have forgot that morning..." 

"Forgot? You had the schedule and everything. You never forget! Unless..." Kima pauses and a sinister grin spreads across her small face. "Were you the one who killed her?!" 

Lila's face turns red. Had she been the one!? 

"Fuck you Kima! I didn't kill her, I was working out. Like I always do." 

I think back to the interview with Lila's husband. He said she works out in the morning, always before 5 am. Should be easy to verify if she was in the gym or not. There would be cameras. Lila moves to exit out the door. 

"Did you say anything about the products being moved?" 

"No, said I was rearranging them. I'm not stupid!" 

"You better not be. If you get caught, I'm not going down with you." 

~ 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 Facts: Touching an endangered animal, such as the Hawaiian sea turtle, is against the law.