Jay poured each of us a small serving from the pots, labeled numbers one and two. We doctored them with cream and sugar to suit our taste. Neither Brian nor Stan could tell one from the other. Mother, Liz and I thought the second, more flavorful pot must be the pure Kona coffee.
“The women won this round.” Jay nodded his head in our direction. “It gets harder with the various blends because some coffee makers are more skilled than others.”
“Regan told us over three million pounds of green beans are produced annually,” Brian said. “If someone could pass off Columbian as pure Kona coffee, they’d have quite the profitable scam.”
Leave it to Brian to steer the discussion in a nefarious direction. “The coffee business is truly fascinating.” I drained the last drop of my luxury coffee. “I’d love to learn more about it from Regan.”
“Has she called?” Brian asked.
I shook my head. “Not yet. I left her a message around seven this morning, but it went directly to voicemail. I assumed she was still asleep. I don’t know if she’s contacted the attorney or not. For all I know, she’s forgotten about Dave, and she’s back at Koffee Land lost in the world of debits and credits.”
“You can tell she was born to be a CPA for a coffee farm,” Stan remarked. When I looked confused, he smirked. “She’s a true bean counter!”
I rolled my eyes at Stan’s pitiful joke, but it made me wonder if there were other reasons why Regan spent so much time at Koffee Land. She knew her workload frustrated Dave.
Did she have other ulterior reasons for spending her days and occasional nights at Koffee Land? The handsome owner seemed congenial and Regan indicated she liked him. Or did she “like” him? My hormones must be rebelling at my lack of erogenous activity because now I suspected my sister-in-law of having an affair with her boss.
Welcome to As the World Turns – the Hawaii Five-O version.
Was it possible Regan murdered Keiki so her husband would be jailed, leaving her free to pursue her adulterous ways?
Or did I drink way too much coffee this morning?
“We only have forty-eight hours to find the killer,” Mother announced. “We need to split up so we can question everyone on my list. Then we’ll––”
Brian interrupted her, using his trial attorney voice to get his point across to us. “Listen, I know you guys think you’re Sherlock Holmes, Colombo, and Jessica Fletcher combined, but you need to leave the detecting to the real detectives this time. Lee seems fairly sharp. He also doesn’t look like he’d brook the kind of nonsense Hunter lets you get away with, Laurel.”
I opened my mouth to protest then decided to stuff it full of scone. Liz could handle Brian.
“Sweetie, we can’t just wing our way home without helping Laurel and Barbara.” Liz reached out to stroke Brian’s back.
“I know this hasn’t been an ideal honeymoon,” Mother said.
Brian cocked an eyebrow at her.
“The three of us are perfectly capable of handling the detecting without you. Liz, why don’t you and Brian go off on one of those expeditions you’ve booked?”
Liz looked at her watch. “Oh, bollocks, I bloody well forgot about the ATV outing. I wonder if they can reschedule for tomorrow.”
I sighed. “I don’t think we have time for any more tourist attractions.”
“Don’t you remember, this was the tour in Waipi’o Valley.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I was really looking forward to that. The reviews made it sound amazing. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“I’ll call and see what they can do,” Liz said. “What’s your first priority on the investigation?”
“My first priority is to get Dave a get-out-of-jail-free card. But I don’t even know the name of Regan and Dave’s criminal attorney.”
Brian waggled his finger in front of my face. “Even if you knew his name, it wouldn’t do you any good. An attorney is only going to discuss the case with his client and whoever the client designated as an outside contact.”
I swallowed my last bite of scone. “Fine. If we can’t get Regan to call us back, and we can’t glean any info from Dave’s attorney, we’ll just have to pay a condolence call to Keiki’s family.
“Who knows? Maybe her mother holds the key to solving this murder.”
Chapter 33
Shortly after breakfast ended, Regan returned my call. She told me that the attorney would meet Dave at the detention center this afternoon. Just as I’d suspected, Regan was back at Koffee Land. Since she produced the staff W-2’s, which included employee addresses, she agreed to give me Keiki’s parents’ address.