He handed her a burger and an order of fries. “Sorry. I didn’t ask if you wanted a burger or something else.”
She took the hamburger with a grateful smile. “It’s not the time to worry about eating healthy. Besides, they make the best burgers in town.” She peeled back the wrapper. “As long as it has pickles, I’m in.”
“It’s fully loaded, including the pickles,” he said.
“Perfect.” Though her stomach was still knotted with concern for her friend, she bit into the burger anyway. It was so good she ate half of it before she gave up and picked at the fries. “Thanks,” she said.
Rex swallowed the last bite of his burger. “For what?”
“Taking care of me. I hadn’t even thought about eating since Alana disappeared.”
“I call it self-preservation.” He lifted his soda. “We have to keep up our strength, especially if we’re diving this evening.” He held his cup up. “To finding the camera.”
She tapped her cup to his. “To finding Alana.”
He nodded. “To Alana.” He took a sip from his straw. “Do you think your customers will come back when they learn you weren’t responsible for Alana’s disappearance?”
“I don’t know.” She’d been sick after getting all the calls and texts from her clients cancelling orders. “After the shock, I’m angrier than anything else. None of that matters if Alana doesn’t come home. Screw those customers.”
At that moment, Rex’s cell phone chirped. He glanced at the screen. “It’s Swede. Let’s hope he’s found something we can use.”
Kimo crossed her fingers in her lap. It was a silly gesture and probably wouldn’t affect the outcome of Swede’s search at all, but she was running out of ideas.
Rex answered the call and put the cell phone on speaker. “You’re on speaker with Kimo and me. What have you got?”
“Good,” Swede said. “I have Hawk on the call as well. I thought he’d like to hear what I’ve found.”
“Hey, Rex. Kimo,” Hawk said. “Go ahead, Swede.”
“First, there was one short news announcement about a woman who went missing during a night dive on Maui,” Swede said. “No mention of her name or of Kimo.”
Kimo frowned. “If it wasn’t in the news, how did my customers link my name to Alana’s disappearance? I can’t believe the gossips would bother to call the companies I’ve been working with to point their fingers at me. It doesn’t make sense.”
“And how did every boat rental company on Maui suddenly learn of the incident and block Kimo from renting?” Rex added.
“Unless they have one hell of a grapevine on Maui, you’re right,” Hawk said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
“Maui is a small island. Most of the locals know each other, but it’s still a stretch to get to every boat rental company,” Kimo murmured. “Thankfully, I have a friend who’s coming through for us.”
“That’s right,” Rex said. “We’re heading out at five with Leilani and Angelo Cortez.”
“I was able to get Devlin Mulhaney and Teller Osgood on standby, waiting for instructions on where to meet,” Hawk said.
Rex frowned. “I thought Teller was on the Big Island.”
“He was,” Hawk said. “I sent him to Maui on a flight on the off chance you might need him.”
“We’ll need him,” Rex confirmed. “Dev and Teller can cover us from the boat while Kimo, Angel, Leilani and I search for the camera.” He turned to Kimo. “If that’s all right with you.”
She nodded. “It is, as long as everyone understands the danger that could be involved. Especially if those men show up again.”
Rex gave Kimo a brief nod. “Speaking for my team, we do.”
“It’s what we do,” Hawk reinforced.
Feeling a little better with food in her stomach and backup for the dive, Kimo nodded. “Then we meet at Leilani’s slip at Lahaina Harbor at five.”
“Now that you have that settled,” Swede said, “I have another piece of information for you.”
