“She confessed!” I shout while sitting on Candy’s back like a very tired lifeguard managing an unruly swimmer. “Murder, attempted murder, and planning to frame innocent people for her homicidal tendencies.”
Candy continues to struggle and protest about the damage to her very expensive wedding attire while Shaka and Loco run up on the scene and help subdue a bride having what might be the worst wedding night in Hawaiian history.
Koa calls in the arrest while handcuffing the woman, who’s still complaining about the damage to her social media damage and ruined content opportunities, even while being read her rights.
A slew of officers darts onto the beach, and Koa quickly hands the woman off to them.
“You could have been killed,” Koa says, pulling me into his arms with an intensity that feels a lot like delayed panic.
“But I wasn’t,” I pant, committed to maintainingoptimism even while dripping with ocean water and covered in sand. “Alana was having an affair with Erwin.”
Koa nods once. “I know.”
“What?”
“That was the big break,” he continues. “We pulled Alana’s phone records. Burner number. Encrypted messages. Hotel key logs that lined up with Erwin’s business trips. We found one of her social media posts that alluded to meeting up with a man she shouldn’t be with. She snapped a picture of herself in front of the hotel. It was time stamped so we scoured the security footage, and it was Erwin she was meeting.” His jaw tightens. “They weren’t careful. They just thought no one was looking.”
“So, you knew,” I whisper.
“I knew,” he says. “And once we confirmed the affair, everything else fell into place. I was on my way here to speak to the bride.”
“I sort of beat you to it.” I can’t help but wince.
“Jinx,” he pants out my name with a frown, “you conducted an unofficial investigation, confronted a killeralone, and nearly drowned in the process.”
“I also solved the case, saved Erwin’s life, and got rescued by cats. That’s a pretty impressive evening by any standards.” I blow a quick kiss to Spam, who’s watching from a safe distance.
“You’re impossible,” he says, but his dimples are digging in when he says it, and I do my best to memorize that short-lived smile.
I shrug. “You’re attracted to impossible women, apparently.”
“Apparently, I am.”
His lips meet mine with explosive intensity, explosive enough to make fireworks seem understated. The waves crash around us as the chickens provide their chirping approval from the sand.
It turns out that justice in paradise comes with excellent romantic timing and superior animal backup support.
Even covered in sand and salt water, solving a murder in tropical settings has significant advantages over traditional law enforcement techniques.
But boy, does the law enforcement around here know how to kiss.
CHAPTER 22
The reception is back in full swing, as if a bride being cuffed and carted off by local law enforcement is just another excuse to drink more mai tais and grab a second plate of poke.
Tiki torches hiss, the ocean booms its steady applause, and chickens strut boldly underfoot, pecking at spilled rice like a feathered clean-up crew. The cats, not to be outdone, lounge across buffet tables with their tails swishing back and forth, occasionally batting at leis tossed like confetti.
Koa had to take off to help process the arrest, but said he’d be back as soon as he could.
I hardly have time to digest the fact that Candy is now Candy-in-Cuffs before Erwin waddles into the spotlight again with more ube all over him, this time on his shirt.
He claps his sticky hands and shouts, “Easy come, easy go! Divorces are my new thing!”
Half the crowd cheers, half the crowd groans. I’m caught somewhere in the middle.
The man processes major life trauma by treating it like a casual hobby update. His bride gets arrested for murder, and I bet he’s already calculating the financial benefits of avoiding messy divorce proceedings.
Without missing a beat, he pivots toward Della with the grace of an idiot discovering that if one sister turned out to be homicidal, he might as well try his luck with the aspiring singer carrying unresolved career setbacks and a guitar case.
