At this point I'm all in to find out what the detectives know. There is only one suspect left according to their murder white board. And they aren't in a hurry to interview her. For now, they are on their respective office phones talking to people in different departments. I could go visit the suspects one by one, and spy on them, but being here seems more pressing. 

"Ok. So your sure that you know the parole officer? He's an ex cop huh. Interesting." 

"Give us time to go back and re-talk to witnesses from that morning. Yes....then I'll call you back."

Both conversations were probing for answers. They hung up and exhaled. Detective Keele takes his pen and begins jotting down notes from the phone call. He looks at detective Jones. 

"Kalu's parole officer is an ex cop from Chicago. He was a captain on a gang squad. But he quit his job early, took an early retirement. I have a feeling that there is something there that is connected to our suspect. I don't know why, or how. But something."

"Dang. That is weird. Why retire early then move all the way here to become a parole officer? It pays shit and the job has terrible hours. Why not just live off of your pension?"

Detective Keele stands and grabs a coffee cup from the pitiful coffee station by the door. He starts to fill it with burnt smelling liquid. 

"Well, one reason could be cost of living. It is expensive as hell to live here. You know that. I need to run him in the data base. See where he is living at. What did you find out?" He asks detective Jones.

Raising to stand, detective Jones follows suit with the coffee. They must really need it to subject themselves to drinking the swill. 

"I talked to the other Jones in forensics. He is still trying to piece together partials from the rooftop. Apparently they have so many prints that they can't keep up. But, he did find a partial matched to her next door neighbor, Rachel. It was fresh enough to warrant us reexamining the witnesses. The ones who saw people going upstairs."

"Was that the hikers? The ones who told patrolmen they had gotten up at three am?" 

"Yep.."

Detective Keele takes a large sip of the steaming liquid. 

"Alright. We can go there with a photo of the neighbor. See if it was her they saw go upstairs using the rooftop door. I'd like to talk to the building manager again. The one too busy to talk more. Find out why the lobby cameras were inoperable that morning."

They both start typing on their computers with multiple tabs open. I wonder what Rachel was doing up on the roof? She is deathly afraid of heights. When we would hang out on our balconies and drink, she would always stay far from the railing. She had an irrational fear of falling. Ironic isn't it. My death could have come by her hands and it would have been her worst fear for dying. 

Maybe it wasn't her. 

🩸

"Did you know that Lila is listed on company emergency contacts for both Tio and Marcus?"

"Say what?!" 

Detective Jones nods and shows his screen to detective Keele. There it was. Just as he said. Listed under both emergency contacts for their HR files. I wondered how they obtained this information. Lila wouldn't willingly give this up. 

"Yep. I am going over the files we have that we took from the lawyers office. Marcus. He had a copy of everyone's. Not sure how this was a legal issue...but who knows."

"All be damned. Why is she their emergency contact? Tio has his grandmother and Marcus must have parents or someone else he could have listed."

"Marcus did  list someone else, the year before. He listed our victim, Leilani. But he must have changed it since they broke up."

Detective Keele frowns and his brows furrow. 

"He is dating Lila too?" He muses.

Why would Marcus list Lila as an emergency contact? It makes no sense. He doesn't even really like her. At least I didn't think he did. She had something weird going on with certain employees. I was sure that there was more to it. 

"There is something weird going on. We need to dig more into her." Detective Keele says. 

My thoughts exactly. 

"Can do. I am finding more documents in his stuff that are hidden. The files can't be opened, they are encrypted. One file has the initials of LJP. Lila's full name is Lila Jane Payne. Coincidence?"

"Call over to Harry in traffic. He has a nephew who does hacking for the FBI. The good guy hacking. Ask him to come in if you can."

Detective Jones picks up the office phone and makes the call. I feel excited suddenly. There were more irons in the fire now. Answers were soon to start coming in. I was sure of it. 

"Fuck! Forensics on the prints at the elevator are too muddled. They just sent an email." Detective Keele says.

This doesn't sound good. And he doesn't cuss that often.

"Which elevator? Not the one up to the roof.."

"Yep, that one. We need to talk to the witnesses. I say we try to catch them now. Maybe they are there. The report says they work from home as entrepreneurs."

"Alright. Let's go." Detective Jones says, hanging up the phone. "Harry said his shift ends in a few hours and he can be here afterwards. He will call his nephew for us now too."

🩸

We are on the way back to my condo building. Detective Keele is driving the unmarked SUV with the windows down. His hand is hanging out loosely from the driver side, breeze catching on his skin. I wished I could feel that sensation again. It is really one of life's simple pleasures. 

The weather has turned overcast as clouds rolled over the island. It may rain. One of the rare times that might last longer than a short shower. I liked when it would rain too though. Perpetual sun did get old. H-1 was slammed with traffic and we exit off early, to avoid sitting for forever. I am still in Honolulu and there are multiple ways to get to my building. 

"Gonna rain boss." Detective Jones remarks. 

"It sure is. Good thing. I forgot to readjust the sprinklers in my yard. They haven't gone off yet today."

"Your wife doesn't know how to turn them on?"

Detective Keele laughed.

"My wife doesn't mess with them. Mans job according to her."

"You guys are old school...I admire that though. Roles were simpler back in the day. Everything was clear who did what. Nowadays you never know what your lacking in and if you'd pissed off your spouse or not. You know?" 

This conversation was interesting...I smiled to myself. Gender roles were a hot topic for my generation. 

"Oh I know. Men are supposed to do everything the woman does, at least that's what it seems from TV. I guess we just have always been this way, my wife and I. I want to support us financially and she wants to cook and take care of our home. It's always worked for us. But if she ever complained about anything, I'd do it. No questions asked." Detective Keele says. "That's the key to keeping a happy marriage. Don't argue with the wife!" 

"I hear you there! Happy wife, happy life. Mine does so much for me and the kids..I cherish her." 

These were some good men indeed. They wanted to be good to their wives and seemed to enjoy life as it was. I feel sad I'd never found a guy like this and I'd never get the chance to marry. But there wasn't anything I could do about it. 

"So when we interview them, do you think they'll lie?" Detective Jones asks. 

"Lie? For what purpose?" 

"Well, I was thinking....mulling over a few things. If they knew what the person looked like that had gone through the door at such an early hour, why wouldn't they have already told patrol when asked?" 

"I'm sure that they just didn't find it pertinent. You'd be surprised how little people process details in the general public. Or pay attention to their surroundings. We are trained to spot everything...make and model of cars around us, colors, number of people around us, what they look like. All in a short snapshot. Most people couldn't tell you who was near them anywhere." 

He makes a good point. Maybe these witnesses were simply leaving and focusing on their hike. They saw whoever it was but didn't process it. Hopefully, they'd remember when asked to recall details. I feared the worst though...that it would be someone I knew. One of the suspects. 

"What if it's not the next door neighbor they saw? Could someone else be wearing gloves? The actual killer?" Detective Jones asked. 

"That is always a possibility. We have solid suspects though, and a bevy of prints and motives. Enough to possibly bring up charges, but we still need more evidence. I just don't think it was an outsider wearing gloves. But we shall see..." 

Indeed we would. 

~ 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: All Hawaiian beaches are public, except for stretches of Federal Government areas. (Such as bases on the islands).